Cecilia is a first time mom who is returning to work 5 days a week when her daughter Isabella turns 3 months old. Isabella was born 6 weeks premature and her immune system was compromised so being able to continue providing breastmilk while returning to work is especially important to Cecilia. Cecilia’s work is project based, which will allow for flexibility to schedule meetings and other tasks around the times when breaks to express milk are required. Cecilia is also trying to get back to her prepregnancy weight, so she has been following a vegan diet and been exercising 3 times a week. Cecilia wants to ensure she can maintain her milk production and also express milk efficiently while at work, so she is looking for tips to help her be able to provide breastmilk till Isabella is at least 6 months of age.
Anwer the following discussion questions below:
1. Explain in detail 3 nutrition recommendations that you would provide Cecilia to ensure her milk is providing adequate nutrients to her daughter and to ensure her milk production continues to increase as Isabella grows and requires more milk.
2. What plan would you give Cecilia for expressing her milk to make sure she expresses enough milk (efficiently as possible) while at work? Explain why your plan will benefit her milk production, and be sure to give details on timing and recommended method of expression.
3. 60% of mothers do not breastfeed for as long as they intend to [1]. Additionally, Younger mothers aged 20 to 29 years are less likely to ever breastfeed (82.4%) than mothers aged 30 years or older (85.2%) [2]. Why do you believe we have disparities with breastfeeding and as a society how could we increase the number of breastfeeding mothers and the length of time that they do breastfeed?
Statistics Sources:
https://www.softchalkcloud.com/lesson/serve/8rxedWnB0I6Aij/html
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23420922/
