Hello! My name is Amanda Oversen and I am a junior nursing student at the University of North Dakota. I am currently taking a childbearing class and will soon be doing clinicals on the OB unit. I joined this listserv a few weeks ago and have enjoyed learning about the different topics that have been discussed so far. Labor and Delivery has always fascinated me, and I am eagerly awaiting my chance to get on the floor during clinicals. One topic that interests me is breastfeeding and the role nurses play in helping the new mom with that experience. And as we all know, although it may not always be considered the "norm" health care professionals are emphasizing the importance of breastfeeding. As the oldest of five children that were all breastfeed, I know that when I become a mother I would like to breastfeed my children as well. My mother's small town job was very flexible and allowed her to take breaks and leave work to breastfeed her children. However, according to Ong, Yap, Li, and Choo (2005), the most important reasons for working mothers to stop breastfeeding between two and six months were due to work-related factors (48.4%). These reasons included the need to return to work, facilities at the workplace being not conducive for breastfeeding and demands of work interfering with breastfeeding. According to Lanting, Van Wouwe, and Reijneveld (2005), the recommendation is to breastfeed an infant for at least six months, and thereafter continued breastfeeding until two years of age along with complementary foods. In this study as well, one of the main contributing factors to stop breastfeeding was the return to work and the feeling of the mother being restricted by breastfeeding. Brown, Bright, Dwyer, and Foxman(2005) also concurred breastfeeding to be the most complete form of nutrition for infants. They also stated success in expressing and collecting milk may be a determining factor in a woman's ability to maintain her milk supply and successfully breastfeedher infant, especially for mothers with premature infants who are unable to nurse directly from the breast at birth or for working mothers who are unable to nurse during their working hours. My questions are with what useful information can we give them about breast pumps, what information can we as nurses provide to new moms with a job to encourage them to keep breastfeeding when they return to work and is there any information or policies we can give them about getting breaks or adequate time to either feed the infant or pump breast milk? Thank you, Amanda Oversen SN Brown, L., Bright, R., Dwyer, D., and Foxman, B. (2005). Breast Pump Adverse Events: Reports to The Food and Drug Administration. J Hum Lact. 21(2). Lanting, C., Van Wouwe, J., and Reijneveld, S. (2005). Infant milk feeding practices in the Netherlands and associated factors. Acta Pediactrica. 94:635- 942. Ong, G., Yap, M., Li, F., and Choo, T. (2005). Impact of working status on breastfeeding in Singapore. The European Journal of Public Health. 15(4): 424- 430. *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html