Sarah Kellogg Neff

Before Breastfeeding Awareness Month comes to a close, we wanted to highlight a really important issue that’s affecting tons of women, children, and families nationwide—the lactation coverage gap. To help us out, we chatted with Sarah Kellogg Neff (she/her), CEO of The Lactation Network, a company that connects families with lactation consultations, breast pumps, and products they need to thrive. “Our goal at The Lactation Network (TLN) is to both connect families to International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) who deliver expert prenatal-to-weaning lactation care, and influence crucial federal legislation to increase equitable, insurance-covered lactation care as mandated under the Affordable Care Act,” she says. “My teams and I aim to dismantle entrenched social stigmas in healthcare practices and urgently close the lactation coverage gap for all families.”

Keep reading to learn more about TLN, how they’re working to close the gap, and how you can help, too.

There are obvious wealth gaps in America, but not enough people know about the lactation coverage gap. Can you explain what it is, and how it affects people?
The Affordable Care Act legally mandates that health insurance providers cover lactation care through the duration of the breastfeeding journey. Yet many health plans regularly deny parents this critical care or offer minimal coverage, making the challenging postpartum season even harder for families who struggle to feed their babies.

We’ve discovered the illusion of lactation coverage: It’s the gap between what insurance plans appear to cover and the care families actually receive. For instance, there might be an in-network lactation consultant covered completely by a patient’s health plan—but they’re 75+ miles away or booked over six weeks out. Some families receive a brief post-delivery visit with a lactation consultant in the hospital, but what happens when they get home and require hands-on support? And what happens when, weeks from delivery, mastitis symptoms appear? When a baby who latched just days prior no longer does? When milk supply runs low? That’s when covered lactation care is most critical—but most health plans don’t have sufficient in-network lactation providers and deny out-of-network claims, leaving families high and dry.

We’ve also sourced proprietary data from thousands of parents across the country with myriad identities about their experiences with breastfeeding. Their stories became our 2023 Breastfeeding Sentiment Snapshot report, which revealed more of what we already knew. The majority of parents say if their insurance provided any (or additional) lactation support, they would’ve seen a lactation consultant more times, or chosen to breastfeed longer. Over half of those surveyed agreed that it’s too hard for women to access expert help for breastfeeding challenges.

Nearly 70k babies are born in the U.S. every week. That’s over 10k babies per day, 450 babies per hour, and eight babies per second. Despite the fact that new humans are welcomed into the world at that clip, we’re still dealing with social, professional, and cultural barriers to parents getting the care they need to feed their families. Accessibility matters, and when parents don’t get the care they need, this deprivation impacts their physical and mental health as well as their family, friends, colleagues, and communities.

How can we help close this gap?
This month, we launched The Advocacy Hub, a digital space that tells the stories of parents who encounter obstacles to lactation care and offers ways to take action. Whether you’re a parent, close family member, or ally, your voice is vital to lend to the conversation. Sign the petition, share advocacy hub content on socials, or download an email template to send to your employer’s HR team.

Employers can be huge catalysts for change on this front—TLN survey data shows that 70% of parents agree that employers don’t do enough to support new families on their breastfeeding journeys. Because the robust care promised by the ACA isn’t a reality for most working parents, that lack of coverage makes it harder for companies to attract and retain working parents. In a recent patient survey, 92% of TLN patients returned to work after maternity leave. The national average is only 59%. A lot of employers simply don’t know that they’re not fully covering lactation care. We need to let them know!

Is there anything else you’d like to share?
At TLN, we know how life-changing lactation care is during a nuanced, vulnerable, and deeply personal time for many families. That’s why we are working to create a future where everyone has access to this care. Families deserve insurance-covered care for the duration of the breastfeeding journey, delivered by an expert with care that’s personalized to their needs. Through advocacy and amplifying our collective voice, we can make this vision a reality.