Leading Lactation Insights - July 2023

Are You Ready for National Breastfeeding Month 2023? 

Maria Lennon, MSN, CNM, IBCLC

Yes, it’s that time of year again . . . August is National Breastfeeding Month! It is the time of year when we celebrate breastfeeding and its multifaceted benefits to mothers, babies, local communities, our country, and the world! 

This year, 2023, is the 13^th annual year that National Breastfeeding Month will be celebrated in the United States. Every year, the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee requests a Congressional Proclamation to declare August as National Breastfeeding Month. The website has a link to an NBM Proclamation Toolkit, which gives info on how to get a state-level proclamation in each state.

The 2023 NBM theme, This is Our Why, aims to illuminate why this work is so important and aims to center conversation on the babies and families needing support. Join us as we celebrate mothers and lactating parents, and work to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding and human milk feeding for the 13th annual National Breastfeeding Month this August! 

Something to Celebrate:

Passage of the PUMP Act: On December 29,2022, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, into law. This law includes the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP Act for short). This act extends the right to receive break time to pump at work to more breastfeeding employees and may impact some of the other information provided below. 

This addition to the labor law says that an employer shall provide:

• Reasonable Break time for an employee to express breast milk as often as needed for up to one year after the child’s birth. The frequency and duration of breaks will vary depending on the needs of breastfeeding mothers. The PUMP Act now covers agricultural workers, nurses, teachers, truck and taxi drivers, home care workers, and exempt employees such as managers and salaried employees. www.dol.org/pump-at-work. 

The employer shall not be required to compensate an employee receiving reasonable break time to pump for any time spent during the workday unless otherwise required by Federal, State, or municipal law.  However, break time for pumping shall be considered work time if the employee is not completely relieved from work duties during the entirety of such break.

Individual 2023 Breastfeeding Month Weekly Observances 

• Week 1 (August 1-7): World Breastfeeding Week 
  Theme: Enabling Breastfeeding: Making a Difference for Working Parents

www.Worldbreastfeedingweek.org 

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/IndigenousMilkMedicineWeek/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indigenousmilkmedicineweek/?hl=en 

Theme: Telling Our Stories, Elevating Our Voices

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/APIBTF

https://www.usbreastfeeding.org/national-breastfeeding-month.html 

There is still a great need for education on the importance of breastfeeding and increased awareness of the need to promote, protect, and support breastfeeding and the benefits of human milk for mothers, babies, and families. Next month is a great time to kick it off!

This month we are spotlighting Tara Daystar, BA, CPM, IBCLC

Megan Quinn

Tara Daystar, BA, CPM, IBCLC, is a Certified Professional Midwife and IBCLC from the Shenandoah region of Virginia. She primarily works in the hospital environment, supporting and educating new parents on newborn behavior and the breastfeeding process while assessing how the dyad is doing post-delivery. She shares that she became involved in healthcare because she cares deeply about supporting parents and children as they transition through pregnancy and birth to life outside the womb and as parents. “I believe there is a systemic lack of affordable, evidence-based support for women and infant healthcare needs in the childbearing and nursing years,” Tara says. “I want to help bring the lactation profession and general maternal infant health field into a positive future.”

Tara shares that she became an IBCLC after realizing how much she enjoyed working as a midwife and doula. She wanted to continue in the healthcare field while avoiding long on-call hours and wanted to help others after struggling with her own lactation journey and recognizing that she is in an underserved area for lactation care. As a result, Tara became a La Leche League leader and is also now an IBCLC. As a lactation consultant, she works in the hospital’s outpatient and inpatient practices while managing her own private lactation business. 

“Our hospital is Baby-Friendly, currently working on recertification, and invested in IBCLC care,” Tara notes. “We spend time inpatient observing feeds and truly helping parents who are new to breastfeeding. Dyads who need follow-up or additional support also come to us for outpatient services. On a given day, I juggle both – and when I’m not at the hospital, I teach private virtual and in-person childbirth and lactation classes. I also provide private practice telehealth and home visit lactation support through my business, New River Lactation.” 

Tara shares that current professional challenges include seeing parents struggle to access the care they are entitled to under the Affordable Care Act and occasionally encountering billing and insurance issues. “Insurances have found ways not to fulfill their promises to pay for lactation care, whether that be preventative or as a treatment for feeding difficulties,” Tara says. “Parents become very frustrated when insurances ask for large sums of money for care that were stated as covered. Luckily, as an IBCLC, I have worked hard to find ways around this to ensure parents can get preapproved and have peace of mind.” Still, Tara notes that some parents are forced to pay out of pocket and often don’t have the time or energy to continue following up. She also shares that it is difficult for private lactation consultants to receive Medicaid coverage in Virginia as Virginia doesn’t yet license the IBCLC profession. She hopes that the health and welfare of families wishing to breastfeed are prioritized to ensure fair reimbursement of Medicaid providers. 

Of the things she would change, Tara mentions that most of the issues she sees are systemic. She would love to see OBs and midwives given more time to speak to prenatal parents about their feeding decisions while helping them learn about lactation ahead of time. In general, she wishes that mothers in the US had closer medical follow-ups with their providers, similar to mothers in Europe and those who opt for home births with midwives. “PMADS are the most common postpartum complication, and the IBCLC, who is caring for both mother and baby and addressing feeding concerns, is hard-pressed to screen for PMADS and address a new mom’s health and emotional concerns in the short time allotted for a lactation consultation,” Tara says. “I wish IBCLCs could be part of a more complete postpartum care team, where mothers received multiple home visits, adequate PMAD screening, ample support, and parental leave for both parents.”

In her free time, Tara enjoys spending time with her family and dogs, hiking, gardening, walking in nature, and traveling. She also likes to DJ ecstatic dance groups and enjoys dancing too. She says that dance and yoga keep her limber and happy and that practicing mindfulness helps her stay grounded and connected with herself and provide more patient, loving care during long days at work. Thank you, Tara, for all that you do to serve the families in your community and ensure they receive the breastfeeding support they need for the healthiest starts possible!