User:Kporter0918/sandbox

Breastfeeding is the process by which human breast milk is fed to an infant. Human breast milk may be fed to infants directly from the breast, or may be expressed by hand or pumped and fed to the infant. The World Health Organization (WHO), the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) all recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life. The parent-infant dyad should be given the opportunity to breastfeed as early as possible within the first hour of life, termed the Golden Hour, and breastfeeding should occur at least 8-12 times per day, or more frequently as desired by the infant. Duration of each feeding varies by parent-infant dyad. Feedings may last as long as 30-45 minutes earch as milk supply develops and the infant learns the Suck-Swallow-Breathe pattern. However, as milk supply increases and the infant becomes more efficient at feeding, duration of feeds may shorten. Older children may feed less often. Mothers may pump milk so that it can be used later when breastfeeding is not possible. Breastfeeding has a number of benefits to both mother and baby, which infant formula lacks.

Increased breastfeeding to near-universal levels in low and medium income countries could prevent approximately 820,000 deaths of children under the age of five annually. Breastfeeding decreases the risk of respiratory tract infections and diarrhea for the baby, both in developing and developed countries. Other benefits have been proposed to include lower risks of asthma, food allergies, and diabetes, although more recent results from meta-analyses did not find significant effects. Breastfeeding may also improve cognitive development and decrease the risk of obesity in adulthood. Mothers may feel pressure to breastfeed, but in the developed world children generally grow up normally when bottle fed with formula.

Benefits for the mother include less blood loss following delivery, better uterus contraction, and decreased postpartum depression. Breastfeeding delays the return of menstruation and fertility, a phenomenon known as lactational amenorrhea. Long-term benefits for the mother include decreased risk of breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. Breastfeeding is also less expensive than infant formula.

Health organizations, including the WHO, recommend breastfeeding exclusively for six months. This means that no other foods or drinks, other than possibly vitamin D, are typically given. After the introduction of foods at six months of age, recommendations include continued breastfeeding until one to two years of age or more. Globally, about 38% of infants are exclusively breastfed during their first six months of life. In the United States in 2015, 83% of women begin breastfeeding, but at 6 months only 58% were still breastfeeding with 25% exclusively breastfeeding. Medical conditions that do not allow breastfeeding are rare. Mothers who take certain recreational drugs and medications should not breastfeed. In 2020, WHO and UNICEF announced that women should continue to breastfeed during the COVID-19 pandemic even if they have confirmed or suspected COVID-19 because current evidence indicates that it is unlikely that COVID-19 can be transmitted through breast milk. Smoking tobacco and consuming limited amounts of alcohol and/or coffee are not reasons to avoid breastfeeding.

 Work Plan: 

- Areas of Focus:


 * Lead/Intro Section : I hope to streamline this section and make it more concise to highlight the main focuses of this article. Additionally, there are some components of this section, as currently written, which are concerning for plagiarism, so I will plan to fix those. Additionally, given my role as a medical provider, I plan to clarify the medical information in this section to ensure that it is all factual and not misleading.
 * Lactation : This section is fairly complete already, and is supported by an entire article on lactation. I think it may be helpful to change the title of this section to Breastfeeding Physiology, as "lactation" is a nonspecific term that can refer to anything in the breastfeeding realm. I will clarify the stages of lactogenesis, and the role that hormones play in milk production. This will help simplify the description of the changes that occur in the breasts throughout pregnancy and postpartum.
 * Breastmilk: As currently written, this section has both some grammatical and also some medical errors/misleading statements. I plan to correct the medical content of this section, taking into account guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), CDC, WHO, and the Academy of Lactation Policy and Practice (ALPP), which is the governing body of lactation counselors.
 * Process: This section is fairly long, and will be the main focus of my work. As currently formatted, the information that would be most pertinent to parents is difficult to find. I hope to reformat this section, so that the pertinent information is easier to find. This may require renaming sections to be more descriptive in the table of contents, reformatting into step-wise or Q&A style sections, and relocating some of the information into different sections where it may be better suited. In the "Exclusivity" section, I will also add a commentary on supplementation, as this is one of the most commonly asked questions on the Postpartum ward - "when should I supplement my milk?" or "I feel like my baby is not getting enough to eat." I would like to use this section to more explicitly address this concern.
 * New section on pumping-and-dumping : It is a common misconception of parents and healthcare providers alike that pumping-and-dumping is required after consumption of a large variety of medications and substances. However, this is not the case. In fact, there are only a few, select situations which require pumping-and-dumping. I would like to create a new section on the Pump-and-Dump concept, and provide accurate/reliable resources for parents and healthcare providers to reference, should they visit this page for that information.

- General Changes: I plan to alter the format of the above sections to be more accessible for readers. Especially for moms and parents who may be coming to this page for information, guidance, and support for their breast/chestfeeding journeys, this page is quite text heavy. I would like to simplify the format so that the information can be more easily found at a quick glance, while also keeping the page as comprehensive as possible.

- Illustrations: I plan to incorporate some better images to illustrate a good latch. I do not feel that the current pictures adequately/completely describe the components of a good latch, which is another common problem parents report. I feel that adding additional guidance for parents by way of pictures will be extremely helpful.