Four Knox County Locations Get Breastfeeding Space Makeover

Knox County, Tenn. – This week is World Breastfeeding Awareness Week and the Knox County Health Department (KCHD), along with the East Tennessee Breastfeeding Coalition (ETBC), recently offered local businesses the opportunity to furnish a lactation space. Fellowship Church, the Boys and Girls Club of the Tennessee Valley, River Valley Health (Cherokee Mills location), and Muse Knoxville all have brand new lactation spaces for their breastfeeding visitors, team members, clients or patients.

KCHD and ETBC provided the following resources to furnish these rooms: recliners, room dividers, side tables, lamps, nursing pillows, and a host of other items.

“There are plenty of challenges nursing mothers face when they make the choice to breastfeed their babies,” said KCHD Nutritionist Callie Coleman. “When businesses provide these accommodations, mothers are more likely to continue breastfeeding, which has health benefits for both mother and baby.”

Among women who work full-time, only 10 percent of those who started breastfeeding their babies will breastfeed six months later. However, breastfeeding duration is dramatically increased with employer support. Comprehensive corporate lactation programs have reported that 75 percent or more of participating moms achieve six months or more of breastfeeding.

In Tennessee, businesses are required to provide employees reasonable unpaid break time and a private space other than a bathroom to nurse or pump, according to state law.

About Knox County Health Department

The Knox County Health Department is the first health department in Tennessee to achieve national voluntary accreditation by the Public Health Accreditation Board and is dedicated to ensuring the conditions in which every resident can be healthy. For more, visit  www.knoxcounty.org/health.