Akron Children’s Hospital helps make businesses more breastfeeding friendly

AKRON, Ohio (Nov. 15, 2021) -- Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a leading cause of death for children under one. While safe sleep practices and a smoke-free environment help reduce the risk of SIDS, breastfeeding also plays an important role in keeping infants safe.

Despite the health benefits of breastfeeding, around 80 percent of breastfeeding parents discontinue it within the first month of returning to work.

Through funding from the Ohio Department of Health (ODH), Akron Children’s Hospital is helping local businesses become more breastfeeding friendly.

Akron Children’s is doing this by:

Creating or revising company lactation policies to meet or exceed the federal law;

Providing feedback for designated spaces for milk expression;

Providing resources for employees such as the Ohio 24/7 helpline, information on FLSA and lactation consultation resources in the area.

“We know that breastfeeding provides health benefits for both the infant and the breastfeeding employee,” said Cesley Hayes, Injury Prevention Specialist, ODH Safe Sleep at Akron Children’s. “However, a lot of businesses don’t have a formal breastfeeding policy in place and try to create one on a caseby-case basis after a parent returns from leave. Having a formal policy in place helps support the lactating person and protect the employee and the business.”

In early spring of 2021, Akron Children’s Hospital reached out to nearly 25 business and organizations in Summit County and educated 12 employers on the importance breastfeeding and of lactation policies in the workplace through virtual meetings. By the end of September, six businesses -City of Akron, Akron METRO

RTA, Greenleaf Family Center, Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority, United Way of Summit and Medina Behavioral Health Group -adopted a new written policy for their agency and received Return-to-work Toolkits for their employees.

The Return-to-work Toolkits include:

An insulated cooler for milk storage

Ice packs

Hand sanitizer

Water bottle

Lactation consultation services brochures

A resource guide

Akron Children’s will receive a continuation of funding from ODH to continue help businesses shape breastfeeding policies into 2022. It intends to reach out to those businesses that have a large amount of childbearing people to provide services. Akron Children’s also provides outpatient lactation services to anyone needing support with breastfeeding.