New moms imprisoned at a medium-security prison J. Aaron Hawkins Sr. Center, in Wrightsville, Arkansas, are now able to pump milk for their infants at home.

ABC7 News reports that the initiative began as a pregnant and post-partum women support group called Growing Together. Recently the group incorporated a lactation program into their agenda with the assistance of UAMS health professionals. Now, mothers have a quiet room exclusively allocated to them by the Arkansas Department of Correction in which they can express breast milk, package, then send it home to their babies.

The pumping room, decorated with colourful walls and comfortable furniture, provides a relaxed and serene oasis for expressing breast milk which any lactating mother would appreciate. Equipped with breast pumps, milk storage bottles as well as milk storage bags, the room provides everything mothers at the facility would need to provide their babies with milk. "What we're starting right here is going to change and heal families here in Arkansas," said program participant Shannon Anderson.

The women at the facility are thrilled about this opportunity as it presents many advantages. Albeit they may not be able to physically breastfeed their babies, but their babies will still get the opportunity to receive tailored nutritional support and immune defence through their mother's breast milk, which their babies’ bodies cannot produce as yet. Most of all, the mothers are exhilarated that they now have an avenue to bond with their babies beyond the prison walls.

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Mea Bennett said thankfully, "It means a lot to me, because not only do I get to provide milk for her, but I know it's a bonding thing," referring to her newborn daughter. “They get to feel like moms,” said Deputy Warden Billy Inman. “Not just inmates."

Breast pumping will also benefit the mothers directly. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), breastfeeding can also reduce postpartum bleeding and help mothers revert to their weight before pregnancy much quicker. It has also been shown to reduce the risk of breast and ovarian cancers in women.

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Some inmates expressed their hopes that the program will soon incorporate parenting classes as well. Officials are supportive of the group and their initiatives in anticipation that the program, through the motherly bond which it helps foster, will keep women out of prison when they are released. "We can incarcerate like we always have, and we'll get the same results we always have,” Inman further expressed. “We'll get more ladies coming to prison."

Pumping breast milk versus having a baby mechanically express the milk from his or her mother’s breast may feel artificial and may not equate to having the real thing. But breast pumps have been helping mothers who are unable to directly breastfeed, whether it is because of premature birth, the child being unable to latch or be it the mother being physically away from the baby, to still provide their babies with the benefits of breast milk.

As in the case of the mothers at the Arkansas Department of Corrections, the ability to express breast milk is phenomenal and helps them provide a crucial basic need to their babies even behind bars.

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