I felt like I had just gotten to the good parts of having a baby. After weeks of very dark times, I was still exhausted, but at last Tommy was smiling, cooing, and doing other adorable things. I no longer felt like I automatically loved this child because I was his parent; I loved him because I loved him.

Pumping breastmilk at work was comforting; I felt connected to him as I created his next day’s meals. For the five months I worked out of the home before quitting my job to freelance, Tommy never needed formula; thankfully, I was able to pump enough. It probably helped that I could relax in my own office with a closed door. I know many women are not that lucky.

According to the Sloan Work and Family Research Network, working moms who breastfeed actually save the company money by taking less sick leave. In recent studies, 86 percent of babies who were illness-free for a year were breastfed; risk of ear infections and gastroenteritis were 70 and 80 percent lower in breastfed babies.

Yet, says the Sloan Network, only 10 percent of full-time working moms are still exclusively breastfeeding their six-month-old babies. And breastfeeding durations are lower for full-time working moms.

The solution? Public policy, says the Sloan Network, that encourages educating employers and kicking cultural taboos to the curb. Some steps have already been taken to change the public mindset: 27 states have enacted laws giving women the right to breastfeed in any location, public or private, where the mother is authorized to be anyway (but only 7 states provide mandates for workplace support of breastfeeding).

This information is just a part of what you’ll find at the Sloan Network’s Website, which offers work and family resources for both policymakers and everyone else, including unbiased data about trends and statistics. If you’re interested in learning more about such issues as after school care, family leave, flexible work schedules, low-wage workers and paid sick days, this website is chock full of information.

For in-depth research, the Web site has several databases: one for bills and statutes, one for policy briefs, and another that is dedicated to statistics. That study on breastfeeding and the workplace can be viewed here; more information on this topic can be seen here.

Meanwhile, the website’s blog offers a slightly chattier and familiar take on issues; there, I learned about presidential candidates’ plans for working families—an issue not always at the forefront in mainstream press coverage. For those readers who aren’t normally policy wonks, the blog offers a gentle breakdown of issues, a quick look at updates to the main website, and some very interesting and probing analysis of issues for working parents. And many of the bloggers invite responses to their posts—so go visit and get the dialogue rolling!