Breastfeeding Café Opens at City Library

None by KCPW

Positive Breastfeeding Role Models One of Goals

(KCPW News) The Breastfeeding Café has opened for the month of August at the downtown City Library. Spokeswoman Christy Porucznik says Utah moms do well at initiating breastfeeding but fall short of a 50 percent goal to continue the practice after children reach six months of age:

"We have about 72 percent [of] people who are initiating breastfeeding. But by six months, we're not near that 50 percent. And when the public health service talks about breastfeeding at six months, they mean exclusive breastfeeding."

At 6 months, Utah's breastfeeding rate is 39.1%, compared to a national rate of 36.2% -- still far short of that 50 percent goal recommended by the U.S. Public Health Service. Such statistics show that America has grown away from breastfeeding, says Porucznik, an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Utah.

The breastfeeding café at the City Library will show that breastfeeding is normal, as well as foster positive breastfeeding role models. As a working mom of a toddler, Porucznik wants to show women that it is possible to breastfeed in today's hectic world:

"I am a working mom - it's hard," she says. "It means that I have to plan my day around pumping so that I can keep up my milk supply, because supply and demand is how the breast works."

The breastfeeding café is open daily in the City Library's Urban Room through the end of August.

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