A priority is establishing regional breastfeeding coalitions, initiating workforce development programs to increase the number of lactation professionals and healthcare professionals who can provide lactation support, and increasing access to programs that provide continuity of care for breastfeeding families.
Who We Work With
The GHPC team partners with Georgia Chapter American Academy of Pediatrics to coordinate efforts across the state. The collaborative action team additionally consists of community lactation consultants, International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs), healthcare professionals, and breastfeeding advocates from many partner organizations including: Georgia Breastfeeding Coalition, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta/Strong4 Life, Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE), GA Department of Public Health and WIC (multiple local public health districts), Quality Care for Children, and University of Georgia.
What We Are Working On
G-SPAN has initiated multiple projects addressing systemic barriers to breastfeeding initiation and duration. We are:
Supporting new and existing regional breastfeeding coalitions via the introduction of a Regional Breastfeeding Coalition Toolkit.
Expanding breastfeeding community clinical linkages and trainings to promote continuity of care for breastfeeding families via existing regional breastfeeding coalitions and partnerships.
Identifying and implementing opportunities for lactation workforce development through design and implementation of lactation education curricula.
Implementing a social marketing campaign targeting systemic cultures that serve as barriers to breastfeeding initiation and duration.
Updating Medicaid language to facilitate increased access to breastfeeding pumps for lactating people.
How We Are Evaluating Our Progress
As part of G-SPAN’s community-centered evaluation approach, we will be tracking our success and challenges along the way to key milestones and performance measures, including:
Populations reached and settings impacted through G-SPAN breastfeeding policy, system and environmental change strategies.
Development and implementation of respective breastfeeding social marketing campaign targeting healthcare professionals, worksites/employers, and lactating people/personal support systems.
Development and dissemination of lactation risk assessment tool for healthcare professional use.
Design and dissemination of Georgia Regional Coalition Breastfeeding Toolkit.
Number of new regional breastfeeding coalitions established in Georgia.
