Barriers to Breastfeeding
Barriers that cause women to discontinue nursing too soon:
- Lack of support from the child's father
- Lack of support from family and friends
- Early hospital discharge
- Lack of timely follow up after a mother goes home from the hospital (for example delayed physician visits or lack of postpartum home health visits)
- Mothers returning to work in the absence of workplace support for breastfeeding
- Lack of acceptance by the community and society in general
- Widespread advertising and promotion of infant formula (free formula or coupons in hospital discharge packs, mailing coupons for free or discounted formula directly to new parents, television and magazine advertising)
- The common portrayal of bottle-feeding in the mass media
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