Women's Awareness of Lactation Support Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

The purpose of this cross-sectional questionnaire is to explore women’s awareness about the lactation support amendments under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the support they received from their insurance companies and employers based on the act. Using convenience sampling and snowball sampling, participants were recruited to participate in a survey through social media and flyers. The goals of this research are to examine the number of women who were 1) aware of the lactation support provisions under the ACA, 2) received breastfeeding support from insurance their health insurance with no cost sharing 3) received reasonable break time and a private space to express milk from their employers, and 4) if there were any challenges in receiving the support mandated under the ACA from their insurers and employers or lactation support in general. The results show that many women who responded to the survey were aware of the amendments under the ACA and many of those women did receive the benefits of the provisions. There were many common reasons for why women did not receive the support they desired. These underlying reasons prevent women from accessing lactation support and provide a challenging environment for women to continue breastfeeding their children.