As a third-year pediatric resident at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles who works an average of 80 hours per week, Dr. Jonathan Goldfinger could use a break, you would think. Too bad there’s so much else that needs to be done — fighting obesity, lowering the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) and reducing the rate of infection for babies, for example.
Armed with a master’s degree in public health from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, Goldfinger arrived in Los Angeles for his residency and co-founded an organization that tackles an issue whose benefits address all these issues: breastfeeding.
“There are many health advantages to exclusive breastfeeding, both to the individual and the public,” he said. Unfortunately, “exclusive breastfeeding rates are pretty low in Los Angeles County compared to others.”
His solution was to create, with the help of colleague Dr. Christine Bottrell, a collaboration among his hospital; its sister institution Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center; and the Federal Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.
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