142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Home Events & Meetings Annual Meeting Schedule & Program

Online Program

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

305823
Professional Lactation Services and Breastfeeding Rates in North Carolina: A GIS Case for Medicaid Reimbursement of IBCLCs

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Kathryn Houk, M.S. , Maternal and Child Health Department, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Ellen Chetwynd, RN, BSN, MPH, IBCLC , Maternal and Child Health Department, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Catherine Sullivan, MPH, RD, LDN, IBCLC , Department of Maternal and Child Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill
International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) have been described as the “only health care professionals certified in lactation care” by the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding.  IBCLC services have been shown to improve breastfeeding duration and intensity; however, IBCLCs are neither available in many settings serving low-income mothers nor financially accessible to those without private insurance.  While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) stipulates that private insurers cover professional breastfeeding support for the duration of breastfeeding, Medicaid does not provide coverage for lactation support. This poster will demonstrate the use of ArcGIS to illustrate the distribution of IBCLCs across North Carolina.  Rates of breastfeeding exclusivity and duration will be compared across geographic areas with differing numbers of IBCLCs and other lactation support services (i.e. hospitals that have banned formula bags, replaced formula use in the NICU, or implemented some or all of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding).  Spatial analyses will highlight the growing number of IBCLCs across the state as well as the need for Medicaid reimbursement for IBCLC services to improve access in underserved areas.

Learning Areas:

Advocacy for health and health education
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Identify the locations of IBCLCs across North Carolina for GIS spatial analyses. Compare rates of breastfeeding exclusivity and duration across geographic areas with differing numbers of IBCLCs and other lactation support services (i.e. hospitals that have banned formula bags, replaced formula use in the NICU, or implemented ten steps to successful breastfeeding). Demonstrate the growing number of IBCLCs across the state and the importance of Medicaid reimbursement for IBCLC services to improve access in underserved regions.

Keyword(s): Breastfeeding, Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a doctoral student at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health studying maternal and child health, epidemiology, and GIS. I have an M.S. in Nutrition Science and Policy from Tufts University and have worked both as a researcher and as a community nutritionist providing breastfeeding counseling. This research project is a collaboration with the Chair of NC Breastfeeding Coalition's IBCLC Advocacy Committee and the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute's Director of Training.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4385.0: Poster Session: Practices and providers that impact breastfeeding outcomes