The case for creating a model insurance policy: payer coverage of breastfeeding counseling services, pumps, and supplies.

With the implementation of the Health Resources and Services Administration Women's Preventive Services Guidelines, which went into effective August 1, 2012, under the Affordable Care Act, healthcare insurance companies across the country have interpreted the breastfeeding support provision in a variety of ways. In order to improve benefit design and promote transparency and accountability, the National Breastfeeding Center and the United States Breastfeeding Committee co-authored a model insurance policy that seeks to educate insurance executives about appropriately supporting breastfeeding medicine for purposes of improving population health.

Comparison of maternal milk (breastmilk) expression methods in an African nursery.

Objective: This study compares maternal milk volumes (MMVs) of Ugandan mothers whose infants were in a special care nursery and who used one of three maternal milk expression techniques: double electric breast pump, single non-electric manual breast pump, and hand breastmilk expression.

Subjects And Methods: A convenience sample of 161 Ugandan mothers of infants who were either too immature or ill to independently feed from the breast yet healthy enough to survive in an environment without ventilator support (birth weights, 0.84-3.

Electric breast pump use increases maternal milk volume in African nurseries.

Health experts worldwide recognize breastmilk as the superior infant food. Recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization (WHO) identify exclusive breastfeeding for the first half-year of life and continuation of breastfeeding into toddlerhood as offering maximum protection from illness, providing a substrate for immunological protection. Data from developed countries identify increasing morbidity and mortality rates for infants who have never received breastmilk in life and demonstrate that infants benefit from exclusive breastfeeding, especially, in areas of severe poverty.