Mothers who want to breast-feed their babies finding support

Public breast-feeding in the state of Nevada is legal. Not only that, breast- feeding is healthy both for mother and child.

These are messages La Leche League of Las Vegas is trying to send to new mothers as well as breast-feeding critics.

Sunday begins World Breast-Feeding Week and to celebrate, La Leche League is teaming up with La Leche International and the World Alliance for Breast-Feeding Action to promote its cause.

La Leche League is a nonprofit organization that promotes breast-feeding and provides mother-to-mother support for those who breast-feed. The local group is gearing up for the local World Walk for Breast-Feeding in September at the Meadows mall.

We're trying to raise awareness and acceptance of breast-feeding, said Ramona Peterson, La Leche League leader and a certified lactation consultant.

"During the '40s and '50s breast-feeding fell out of vogue," Peterson said. "The medical professions introduced formula and thought it was a better way to feed babies."

It also was a time when women began going to work. Others thought formula was healthier.

Although the American Academy of Pediatrics has since reported that breast-feeding is healthier for a number of reasons, there is little support and encouragement from health care professionals, she said.

"You get pockets where people are knowledgeable but a lot of mothers come out of the hospital saying they weren't encouraged to breast-feed or their pediatrician didn't know a lot about it."

"That does happen," she said, "but it's very individualized."

Many new mothers wanting to breast-feed may also be criticized by friends or their own mothers, who didn't breast feed.

One of the biggest issues confronting women who breast-feed is nursing in public, she said.

"It still makes a lot of people uncomfortable. Public breast-feeding is taboo."

To advise and comfort new mothers, the group meets each month to discuss issues such as the advantages of breast-feeding, the family and the breast-fed baby, the art of breast-feeding, nutrition and weaning.

The method is cost-efficient, Peterson said, and the breast-fed infant is likely to have fewer ear infections and gastrointestinal and respiratory infections because antibodies from breast milk help protect children from illness.

Issues that may occur during the first few weeks such as what to do if the baby doesn't "latch on" right away, how to handle peer pressure and nursing in public are discussed.

The art of breast-feeding covers common concerns such as sore nipples, mothers with engorged breasts and babies with teeth.

Whether babies are getting enough milk is also a concern for new mothers, she said. With bottle-feeding, mothers can see how much the baby is getting, but there are ways mothers who breast-feed can assess milk intake by looking at the child's urinating and stooling habits and weight gain.

Breast-feeding also decreases the risk for breast and ovarian cancer in those who practice the method, she added.

In the United States many mothers may want to start breast-feeding but give up after a couple of weeks or months, Peterson said.

"In all cases it's a personal choice. We're here to support them whatever their choices are. Some may want to breast-feed only six weeks."

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