Mother’s Milk Leads to Healthier Babies and Healthier Moms

“Every Ounce Counts” Campaign Encourages Local Mothers to Breastfeed

It makes your kids healthier and smarter. It boosts babies’ immune systems, guards them against childhood obesity and diabetes and may even protect infants from leukemia and asthma. It reduces women’s chances of breast cancer and burns as much as 600 calories a day. It’s free and available day or night. Pediatricians, health care experts and millions of mothers all swear by it: breastfeeding makes babies and their moms stronger.

Breastfeeding is also the focus of a new Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department public education campaign that encourages more mothers to nurse their babies exclusively until they are six months old and then supplement solid foods with breast milk until the baby’s first birthday or longer. Currently, about 78 percent of moms in Texas breastfeed their babies.

The “Breast Milk-Every Ounce Counts” campaign is being launched this month in conjunction with National Breastfeeding Awareness Month. It promotes the advantages of breastfeeding and addresses the concerns many women have about nursing, especially in public.

“Breastfeeding has long-term benefits that extend into child and adulthood because of its effects on the baby’s growth and development from the beginning,” says Gail Gresham, Breastfeeding Coordinator for the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department’s Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. “Many of the important ingredients in breast milk simply are not found in formula, so nursing babies experience better brain development and also are less likely to have ear infections, diarrhea and respiratory illnesses. For mothers, breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast and ovarian cancer and helps new moms fight post-partum depression and obesity.”

The anchor of the pro-breastfeeding campaign is a new, one-of-a-kind website, www.breastmilkcounts.com, that advocates say is a one-stop resource with information about the benefits of breast milk for babies, the positive impact of breastfeeding on a mother’s health, and helpful tips on breastfeeding for moms and moms-to-be. Beginning this week, the DSHS Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program also will host a series of events across Texas to provide personalized mom-to-mom instructions on how to make nursing an easy, positive experience for them and their babies.

“Our breastfeeding clinics are a tremendous learning opportunity for women,” says Gail Gresham. “Moms and expectant mothers will learn things like how to overcome common concerns about breastfeeding, how to position and feed the baby, how to recognize hunger and satiety cues and how to store and stockpile breast milk to prepare for returning to work or school. Information like this can be the difference in whether or not a mother starts and continues to breastfeed.” Expectant women and mothers who attend the clinics will receive a free “Every Ounce Counts”  lullaby album of original songs written and performed by Texas recording artists, including the Dixie Chicks, Tish Hinojosa and many others.
Also launching in August will be our community partnership project with Capital Metro which will feature three exterior bus ads and one hundred interior placards ads with the theme “Every Ounce Counts” the ads will be rolling down the streets of Austin through October.

The Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services’ WIC program will be joining the Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition at an event sponsored by the group, to celebrate World Breastfeeding Month on August 7, 2009 from 11:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m. at City Hall, 301 West 2nd Street. Come learn about and support local breastfeeding resources, get free ice cream, free “Every Ounce Counts” t-shirts, and join in honoring Austin’s 2009 Breastfeeding Heroes.

About WIC:
Women, Infants & Children (WIC) is a nutrition program sponsored by the Texas Department of State Health Services which helps pregnant women, new mothers, and young children eat well, learn about nutrition, and stay healthy. WIC provides nutrition education and counseling, nutritious foods, and access to health care for low-income women, infants, and children through its Special Supplemental Nutrition Program. Eligible mothers also can receive breast pumps, breastfeeding supplies and peer-to-peer counseling through the WIC program. For a list of WIC clinic locations, you can visit our website at http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/health/wic.htm or call 1-800-942-3678.

 (For more information, contact Rebecca Lopez-Aviles, Outreach Coordinator at 972-6846.)
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