142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

307503
Breastfeeding-friendly activities in hospitals and child care programs: Making it happen

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

Kathleen Anderson, MEd, CLC , Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute, Department of Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Catherine Sullivan, MPH, RD, LDN, IBCLC , Department of Maternal and Child Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Miriam Labbok, MD, MPH, IBCLC, FACPM, FILCA, FABM , Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute, Department of Maternal Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Emily Taylor, MPH, , WISE, Chapel Hill, NC
Background

The Surgeon General’s Call to Action (2011) addresses the need for maternity and community support to enable mothers to meet their breastfeeding goals.  This paper describes the role of an academic institute in informing and supporting related State level activities.

Methods

Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute (CGBI) hosted a meeting of stakeholders to discuss breastfeeding needs in NC. As a result, a working group was formed to address the 2006 NC Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding, including academic, health professional and NGO groups, and delegates from the NC Division of Public Health (NCDPH). This group was invited to serve as a task force of the NC Child Fatality Task Force.

Results

Outcomes of this effort included the call for a NC Maternity Care Breastfeeding-Friendly Designation (NCMCBFD); CGBI supported development of criteria and the designation application based on CGBI research and national criteria.  A similar designation process, the NC Breastfeeding-Friendly Childcare Designation (NCBFCCD), was developed as part of a USDA grant to NCDPH Special Nutrition Programs Unit, following the same development process, creating criteria based on CGBI work with breastfeeding-friendly child care.  Challenges included continuity of state agency staffing and time delays.

Conclusions

Since the NCMCBFD launch in 2010, 30 designations have been awarded, and several other hospitals have changed practices; other states have used this approach.  Preliminary data on the NCBFCCD, newly-launched in 2014, are being collected.  Involvement of stakeholders supported the successful State breastfeeding designation initiatives. The unique lessons learned from these efforts may inform other state actions.

Learning Areas:

Program planning

Learning Objectives:
Describe actions to create state designations for breastfeeding-friendly activities Identify and discuss challenges and lessons learned for breastfeeding-friendly designations

Keyword(s): Breastfeeding, Maternal and Child Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am director of the Breastfeeding-Friendly Child Care Project and provided TA for child care designation activities.
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.