Women’s health and breastfeeding advocates are worried we might be poised for a reversal.
Breastfeeding in America isn’t easy but it got a whole lot easier after the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010.
Lesley Muldoon, a 37-year-old mother of three in Washington, learned just that with the birth of her son two and a half years ago. Because of the law, she was able to get a free breast pump, and that smoothed her transition going back to work.
Even though her insurance provider, CareFirst, wouldn’t cover the cost of the hospital-grade breast pump she needed to feed her twin girls six months ago, she said, “Overall, I’ve had pretty good experiences with the insurance company. Being able to pump allowed me to return to work after both pregnancies and maintain a breastfeeding relationship with all my children, even if it’s not ideal for the twins.”
That’s because the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, included provisions aimed at supporting mothers who want to breastfeed, as part of its expansion of preventive-health services coverage. The regulations — and how they are applied by companies — haven’t been perfect, and some women have fallen through the cracks.
But in recent years, several studies have shown that the provisions — giving moms access to lactation consultants, breast pumps, and time and space at work to pump their milk until as late as a year after birth — have contributed to rising breastfeeding rates in the US.
The ACA’s regulations went into effect in 2010 and 2012. From 2011 to 2014, the rate of women who were breastfeeding 12 months after giving birth rose from 27 percent to 34 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That amounted to the largest increase in any recent three-year period.
Now women’s health and breastfeeding advocates worry that we might be poised for a reversal of this trend.