Building a breastfeeding movement: Addressing policy, systems and environmental change through collaboration

The Cook County Department of Public Health and the Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago were awarded a Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant by the CDC. The initiative focuses on obesity prevention through policy, systems and environmental change. As breastfeeding reduces the risk of obesity by 22%, breastfeeding promotion and support is a critical strategy. Yet, breastfeeding rates in Illinois are lower than the national average, with huge racial/ethnic disparities. As building constituency and overall support for policy change is crucial to its success, HealthConnect One, the Illinois Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics, the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition and the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council are using cooperative, inter-organizational networks as a key strategy in this endeavor. There are two main goals of the collaboration: (1) add an exclusive breastfeeding measure to the Illinois Hospital Report Card; (2) implement five of the ten Baby Friendly steps in 75% of the Cook County hospitals. The Illinois Hospital Report Card helps consumers be better informed about health care choices. The collaboration seeks to modify statewide policy to include data on exclusive breastfeeding. An intermediate success is the inclusion of breastfeeding on the Report Card starting by March 2011. In implementation the Baby Friendly steps, outreach was conducted to all 21 hospitals. A Hospital Advisory Committee provided feedback and outreach to hospitals. An assessment tool, used to determine existing practices and barriers, was developed. In addition, technical assistance is provided to the hospitals undertaking the challenge of implementing Baby Friendly steps.