Celebrating National Breastfeeding Awareness Month
Tuesday, August 19th, 2025
Join PVF Tribe in celebrating national breastfeeding month
August is National Breastfeeding Month in the United States. This is a time to celebrate mothers beyond our ability to create the miracle of life. We nourish our babies too! It’s increasingly challenging to breastfeed in the modern world, as we may need to return quickly to work. Even when we take full maternity leave, pumping during the workday isn’t always easy. It’s even more challenging for black and brown women.
Benefits of Breastfeeding
• It’s natural: Women are sometimes shamed for feeding infants in public, but breast milk is natural and overwhelmingly supported by pediatricians.
• Boosts babies’ immunity: The nutrition in breast milk is easy for your baby to digest and contains antibodies that meet the unique needs of infants.
• Reduces childhood and adult health risks: Reduces infant and lifelong risk of ear infections, asthma, Type 2 diabetes, respiratory infections, obesity, and more.
• It’s healthy for moms: According to Cleveland Clinic, nursing lowers the risk of postpartum depression, certain cancers, and heart conditions, including cardiovascular disease.
• Weight loss: Your body burns more calories and better metabolizes glucose (sugar) when you breastfeed, so you may lose pregnancy weight a bit faster.
• It’s free: You’ll need to invest in a breast pump, baby bottles, and other feeding supplies, but you’ll spend less money than you would on baby formula.
Why Black Women Breastfeed Less
The last week of National Breastfeeding Month, is Black Breastfeeding Week. This week is crucial for our health, as black babies have higher infant mortality rates, and we face greater barriers to breastfeeding.
Raising awareness works! Research from 2015 shows that about 69% of black women breastfed, compared to 83% of all women. Research from 2021 shows that just over 74% of black women breastfeed.
Barriers Black Women Face When Breastfeeding
Maternity wards that serve communities of color are less likely to provide lactation support. So, if babies don’t latch on easily, we may not get the support we need.
Although the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides parents with 12 weeks off, this time is almost always unpaid. Due to wage inequities, many black women must return to work after a few weeks.
Black moms are more likely to work in roles where they don’t have set schedules. This can make maintaining a pumping schedule challenging.
Florida's policies on breastfeeding and pumping at work
Women in Florida are free to breastfeed in any public or private location they’re allowed to be without worry of indecent exposure charges. “Allowed” in this instance, means you can’t be on private property without permission or in unauthorized areas of a public location.
You May Be Able To Pump At Work
The FLSA PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act is a federal law that was passed in 2022. It provides almost all nursing mothers with the right to reasonable break time and a private, non-bathroom space to pump at work for 1 year. Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees have exceptions, and flight crew and some other industries and roles are exempt from this act.