Why the Breast Pump Tax Write-Off Doesn't Do Enough to Increase Breastfeeding Rates

While I'd rather not even acknowledge Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann's recent comments on how the IRS' allowing mothers to write-off the cost of breast pumps on their taxes is a symptom of a "nanny state," I suppose it's a good launching point for a larger conversation on American breastfeeding trends.

As noted in last week's , the tax code has been changed to allow women who bought a breast pump during 2010 to write off the cost, but only if 7.5 percent or more of their income was spent on health care.

So, while Palin and Bachmann have used the issue of breastfeeding to add to their rhetoric on government's intrusion into citizens' every day lives, it ends up that many women wouldn't be able to use the write-off anyway.

Let's say that a woman receives Medicaid or other government medical assistance. This would mean that she's not paying her own health care costs, so she wouldn't be able to write off the cost of a $350 breast pump. In another scenario, let's say a woman works minimum wage, but receives health benefits through her job. Chances are that she also wouldn't be using 7.5 percent of her income to pay for her health care.

While the IRS seems to intend to make it easier for women to breastfeed their infants through this tax credit, it doesn't seem likely to me that many women would be able to use the write-off anyway.

It's tough for American women to be in situations where they are able to breastfeed. New mothers are often forced by financial necessity to return to work in the early weeks of their child's life. I know that if I had another baby in my current financial situation, I would be taking unpaid leave from my writing gigs. And because I work on a contract basis, I wouldn't be able to receive disability benefits, which are usually granted for four to six weeks after birth, depending on whether or not a mother had a cesarean.

In other words, I'd be completely broke and recovering from childbirth with a toddler and a newborn on my hands.

Other moms might be able to take a bit more time off, but they may choose to take an extended unpaid leave. If mothers plan to continue breastfeeding their children upon returning to work, they may find it difficult to find the time and space to pump breastmilk for their baby.

Human Rights Watch noted in a publication last month that 178 countries have paid leave programs for new mothers. About 50 have similar programs for new fathers.

But the U.S., arguably the wealthiest nation in the world, isn't on the list.

"The U.S. can't afford not to guarantee paid family leave under law, especially in these tough economic times," said Janet Walsh, deputy women's rights director at Human Rights Watch and author of the report."Countries that have these programs show productivity gains, reduced turnover costs, and health care savings."

The report, which details the experiences of 64 parents of young children, notes that government policy that assists new mothers in staying home with their baby after birth also facilitates more breastfeeding and less postpartum depression. 

While people like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann have followers who call for less government, they're often the same people that would cry foul if their Social Security and Medicare benefits suddenly stopped. But when it comes to the government taking steps to better the lives of American families, it's criticized as creating unnecessary laws and even more gratuitous spending.

Policy makers would do well to get on board with those 178 countries that facilitate maternal leave for new mothers. Such policies would undoubtedly increase breastfeeding rates in the U.S., which are unfortunately influenced by race and class.

According to the Centers on Disease Control, a 2004 National Immunization Survey found that 71.5 percent of non-Hispanic white children were breastfed, compared with 50.1 percent of non-Hispanic black children. The rates of continuing breastfeeding beyond the six-month mark were also higher among white mothers, according to the survey.

In another NIS survey of families with children born between 2001 and 2004, breastfeeding rates were lower among black children than white children, but only in less wealthy socioeconomic groups.

Among both races, the study found, "children were more likely to have ever been breastfed if they were not eligible for WIC, had mothers who were 20 years old or older, were married or had some college education, or were above the federal poverty threshold."

But a 2002 study published in the medical journal Pediatrics found that breastfeeding rates among blacks, whites and Hispanics had increased between 1996 and 2001. The study found that 69.5 percent of American women nursed their infants in 2001, with 32.5 percent of those mothers continuing nursing beyond the six month mark. Rates had increased especially in socioeconomic groups that were "historically less likely to breastfeed," the study noted.

The benefits of breastfeeding continue to be proven in a myriad of studies. One study published in Pediatrics last year showed that among 1,038 ten-year-olds who were breastfed for at least six months, children had better academic achievement than those who were formula fed. The findings were especially true for the boys in the cohort.

Another study published in Pediatrics looked at 4,164 Danish infants. It found that "exclusive breastfeeding until the age of four months and partially thereafter was associated with a significant reduction of respiratory and gastrointestinal morbidity in infants."

And yet another Pediatrics study perhaps proves why policy support of breastfeeding is not only healthy for mothers and babies, but could also help alleviate the government's spending problem as well.

The study found that breastfeeding helped decrease rates of the most notorious childhood diseases, and if "90 percent of US families could comply with medical recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for six months, the U.S. would save $13 billion per year and prevent an excess of 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be in infants."

Understandably, some women are not able to breastfeed, or take certain medications that would harmfully transfer through their milk, but for the majority of American women who struggle to breastfeed because of their financial situations, this is truly a reason for the government to do more on the policy front than merely allow some women to write-off the costs of breast pumps.