Influencing Breastfeeding Rates on a Local Scale
Welcome home from the California Breastfeeding Summit! I was unable to attend, but I have heard reports of excellent communication and interesting educational topics. According to my colleagues who were there, the vibe was very positive and uplifting, as is usually the case when lactation professionals meet! My colleagues and I have a meeting scheduled this week to work on our future plans based on everything they heard and absorbed in Sacramento. Many of you probably already have something similar coming up soon. One of the topics we have on our agenda is the continued application of The First 100 Hours© when we are working with moms in the hospital and in multiple outpatient settings.
My Bakersfield Breastfeeds co-founder, Adrienne, and myself have been fortunate enough to see our reach expanding over the past year to encompass more mothers outside the hospital experience. We are primarily hospital-based IBCLCs, but now we also see many more moms outside through support groups (including the soon-to-be-opened Baby Cafe© Bakersfield!) and outpatient contacts. Here's what we know: the truth is that we all can work together to improve breastfeeding support all along the spectrum. Families have a right to quality care from the moment they learn their family is growing by 1 (or 2,3,4...:) Anyone who attended the Summit knows that new postpartum guidelines for hospitals and birth facilities have been implemented and breastfeeding rates will be scrutinized even more carefully in the coming months and years. Here are some steps you can take right away to create momentum.
- Start by scrutinizing your breastfeeding rates yourself. Use your unique perspective to look at all the angles. We spend a lot of time breaking down our statistics for "Mixed/Personal Choice" in our workplace. We look at those numbers constantly and watch for trends which influence them - things like changes in staffing, assimilation of nurses having just completed Birth & Beyond California, altering the way formula bottles are accessed by nurses, changes in hospital policy regarding informed consent for formula use, which pediatrician is on call, etc. These types of factors cause peaks and valleys in the number of breastfeeding mothers who are also using formula without medical indication. Numbers don't lie; numbers tell a story. Find the story and become the storyteller in your sphere of influence.
- Ask for really specific information from administration when they start pushing for changes in breastfeeding rates. "Great, I have lots of ideas for things we can do in the short- and long-term. What kind of timeline were you imagining? What's our budget? How many people can we train? Will we be making facility-wide policy changes?" There's no sense beginning a project without knowing the scope. If the sky's the limit, you have your work cut out for you! If your have virtually no budget but lots of room to change policies and protocols, that's your focus.
- Participate in your local breastfeeding coalition! The collaboration is useful to the community, allows you (and, by extension, your workplace) to ride the wave of momentum created by others, and provides you an outlet for the type of professional de-briefing and support system necessary to maintain forward movement in the field of lactation.
If you are not in a position to do any of those things because your main function is to help mamas and their babies, but you still want to do more to advance breastfeeding, we encourage you to spend time teaching others. Try sharing your style with others in your workplace who have the honor of helping breastfeeding moms. Make sure the nurse who refers you to a patient follows you into the room to observe and listen. Invite them to join you for a interesting lactation training or a coalition meeting. Ensure that your co-workers understand what you mean when you use lactation jargon like "medical indication for formula" or "supplemental nursing system." Reach out to say thanks to a pediatrician who has referred some dyads to you for consultation and keep the conversation about breastfeeding going. Stop by the local "ultrasound boutique" or maternity wear store and make sure they have breastfeeding resource lists for pregnant moms.
We can't wait to see what 2014 brings for the field of lactation! We know we will be educating professionals, some of whom are already planning their IBLCE exam dates, we will be meeting many new moms and their babies at the Baby Cafe© Bakersfield, and we will be sharing The First 100 Hours© all along the way. Good luck getting all your new ideas going! Let us know how things are working for you!