Kaiser Permanente's Commitment to Breastfeeding

Kaiser Permanente, the largest prepaid, integrated nonprofit health system in the United States, traces its history back 70 years to the partnership between industrialist Henry Kaiser, who took on the task of building ships to support the World War II efforts, and a young physician, Dr. Sidney Garfield, who assumed responsibility for providing health care to tens of thousands of men and women working in the Kaiser shipyards. The healthcare model Dr. Garfield developed—providing all-inclusive health services in exchange for a small portion of each shipyard employee's paycheck—with an emphasis on preventive health—is still at the heart of Kaiser Permanente's mission today.

Kaiser Permanente's mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. Kaiser Permanente's strategic vision is to be a “Leader in Total Health” by making lives better. “Total Health” is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being for all people. We are committed to helping our members, our workforce, their families, and our communities achieve “Total Health” through the services we provide and by promoting clinical, educational, environmental, and social actions that improve the health of all people. Breastfeeding is a crucial aspect of “Total Health”—for both the mother and the child.

The medical community has definitively confirmed the many benefits of breastfeeding. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), ¹ breastfeeding reduces infant hospitalization due to respiratory infection by 72%. Infant gastrointestinal infections are reduced by 64%. Middle ear infections are slashed in half. AHRQ ¹ data also confirm that sudden infant death syndrome is cut in half when mothers breastfeed their babies. Childhood leukemia is reduced nearly 20%, childhood obesity is cut almost 25%, childhood asthma is reduced up to 40%, and childhood diabetes is cut nearly 40%. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says breastfeeding for 9 months reduces a baby's odds of becoming overweight by more than 30 percent (http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/breastfeeding/). This is serious science deserving serious attention.

As for the health of the mother, if she breastfeeds, AHRQ data shows ovarian cancer is reduced more than 20%. ¹ Maternal breast cancer goes down nearly 30%. ¹ And, maternal metabolic syndrome in some cases is slashed by nearly 90%. ¹ We should all pay close attention to these numbers. Some other numbers are also stunning.

If 90% of U.S. families could comply with medical recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, the United States would save $13 billion per year and prevent more than 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be infants. ²

The Lancet tells us that in the United States alone, more than 32 million kW of energy is used every year for processing, packaging, and transporting formula. More than 800,000 pounds of paper and 86,000 tons of metal are added to landfills every year because of formula use in the United States. ³ So it is clear that breastfeeding is good for infants, good for mothers, good for the country, and good for the environment.

At Kaiser Permanente, we take to heart the 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding as suggested by the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. Three years ago, Kaiser Permanente also made a commitment to the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), that:

• All Kaiser Permanente hospitals that offer maternal services will be designated as “Baby-Friendly”—or publicly share performance using The Joint Commission's breastfeeding measure.

We are pleased to report that this commitment has been completed, according to PHA:

In 2013, PHA early childhood partner Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation's largest healthcare providers, completed its commitment to improve the health of nearly 100,000 babies and mothers in its care. Kaiser achieved the highest standards in breastfeeding in its 28 hospitals that offer maternal and child health services. ⁴

As part of Kaiser Permanente's support of breastfeeding as a crucial part of our vision for empowering the “Total Health” of our members, our employees, and the communities we serve, we also offer a comprehensive breastfeeding toolkit for unrestricted use by any person or entity interested in learning from what we have discovered as a cornerstone for breastfeeding as a key to achieve total health for all in our care (http://kpcmi.org/how-we-work/breastfeeding-support/).