Blog

Businesses enjoy return on investment in breastfeeding-friendly workplace

August 10, 2018

Employers who provide a space where employees can express and store milk or breastfeed a baby quickly realize the benefits of doing so. According to the New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force, employers who comply with state and federal laws requiring them to provide a clean and private space for lactating mothers and to offer flexible break time so mothers can breastfeed or pump milk experience less absenteeism, lower health care costs and turnover rates, higher productivity and employee loyalty and positive community perception. Read full article

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The Breastfeeding Movement Is Experiencing a Tech Revolution—Here’s How It’s Helping New Moms

August 8, 2018

On a humid weekend in June, a teal RV decorated with the Pumpspotting logo—a heart with the circle-dot doodle of a breast—rumbled into Detroit. The two-year-old start-up, whose app offers a crowd-sourced guide to lactation-friendly spaces, was in the midst of a Kickstarter-fueled tour across the country. Inside, pregnant women and new moms relaxed into pastel poufs; three-week-old babies suckled not far from a two-year-old; a lactation coach suggested alternate positions for a better latch. With the RV at humming capacity, someone joked that it might tip. Welcome to the new breastfeeding revolution. Read full article

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There’s help with breastfeeding for Las Cruces moms

August 5, 2018

More than a dozen Las Cruces mothers sat on sofas around a large room on a recent day, quietly breastfeeding their babies. Their older children, mainly toddlers, happily pushed toys across the floor and jabbered with each other, keeping themselves occupied as they waited. For many mothers in this group, the scene is a weekly occurrence. They gather at the MountainView Senior Circle on Lohman Avenue for encouragement, help and all-around camaraderie. August is National Breastfeeding Month and Aug. 1-7 marks World Breastfeeding Week, recognized internationally to boost support for women who breastfeed. A companion event, the Big Latch On, is celebrated during…

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Breastfeeding Behind Bars

June 7, 2018

by Monica Esparza, Deputy Director, NMBTF In August 2017, NM District 1 Court ruled that breastfeeding is a constitutional right under the NM Equal Rights Amendment and held that NM Corrections Dept must allow inmate mothers to breastfeed during in-person visitations and must allow inmate mothers to use an electric breast pump to express milk while they are separated from their child (Hidalgo v NMCD). In Spring 2018, Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center officially released their Breastfeeding Support Program policy. Over the last year, five inmate mothers/baby dads have received breastfeeding support. Support for mothers in the corrections system has been…

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Hacking Traditional Native Regalia for Easier Breastfeeding

May 2, 2018

When we heard about the MIT’s Make the Breast Pump Not Suck Hackathon, we knew we needed to represent New Mexico. Knowing the importance of breastfeeding in reproductive justice, we approached Rachael Lorenzo of Indigenous Women Rising to organize a team. Along with Malia Luarkie (Laguna Pueblo and an organizer with Indigenous Women Rising), Marya Errin Jones (ABQ Zine Fest), and Monica Esparza (NM Breastfeeding Task Force), Rachael organized an intimate community gathering of Pueblo women who wanted to share their past breastfeeding experiences. With the ultimate goal of making traditional dresses more breastfeeding-friendly, the discussion included stigma against teenage parenting…

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From Anger to Action

April 4, 2018

by Lissa Knudsen, Board Chair Growing up with a veterinarian father and on 21 rural acres, I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time around nursing foals, lambs, and litters of puppies, and kittens as a child. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but that and knowing that my own mother breastfed me for 11 months (which is pretty amazing given that I was born in 1974 when breastfeeding in the US was it’s all-time lowest) meant that I grew up expecting I would breastfeed my own baby. My mom and I are very tightly…

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Breastfeeding is healthy for mothers, babies

August 1, 2017

Las Crucen Stacie Justus, 28, always knew that she wanted to breastfeed. “It’s something my mom did for both me and my sister and I wanted to do that for my kid, too,” Justus said. Justus now has the opportunity to experience breastfeeding with her daughter Sawyer, who was just 7 weeks old at the end of June. So far, Justus said the experience has been good. However, there have been a couple challenges, such as oversupply (producing too much breast milk) and trouble getting Sawyer to latch on to feed. But the key is patience, Justus said. READ MORE

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Legislative Roundup

May 4, 2017

New Mexico women could use Medicaid to pay for lactation consultants under a bill advanced by the House Health and Human Services Committee this week. Read more

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The Many Benefits of Breastfeeding

September 19, 2015

By EMILY GUERRA  September 12, 2015 – Las Cruces, NM – On this edition of PUENTES, bridges to the community, Emily Guerra meets with New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force Registered Nurse & Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Kimberly Smetzer, and Breastfeeding Counselor, Suzanne Staley, to bring awareness of the many benefits breastfeeding provides for your baby READ MORE

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Kimberly Smetzer and Marisol Kearny: Local hospitals, employers support nursing mothers

September 3, 2015

As local health-care practitioners and members of the New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force, we felt it was important to celebrate National Breastfeeding Month by outlining some of the exciting developments happening both here in Las Cruces and in southern New Mexico in the effort to ensure all breastfeeding families feel supported. Read More

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