Breastfeeding is a Team Effort!
Most approaches to breastfeeding promotion are targeted towards individuals within the populations with the lowest breastfeeding initiation and duration. However, many barriers to increasing breastfeeding initiation and duration are at a systems level.
Although breastfeeding has many short- and long-term health benefits, the ability of mothers and families to initiate and sustain breastfeeding is dependent on the systems that they interact with. This is why we believe that breastfeeding is a team effort!
Healthcare professionals of all types who interact with parents from pregnancy, to the birth setting, to postpartum, can promote breastfeeding! Even if you are not a lactation professional, you can support families by talking to them about their intended feeding plan, identifying barriers to initiating and sustaining breastfeeding, recommending local and statewide resources, and equipping expectant and new parents with the knowledge to make informed decisions about their infants’ and their own health!
Resources
| I’m Looking For… | Resource |
| What my role, as a healthcare professional, is in supporting breastfeeding | The Surgeon General’s Call to Support Breastfeeding: How Doctors Can Help (CDC) |
| Actions that my health system and I can take to support breastfeeding | Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding (UNICEF) |
| How my healthcare system or office can become more breastfeeding-friendly | Breastfeeding-Friendly Physician’s Office, Part 1 (The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine [ABM]) |
| How I can practice cultural sensitivity when providing breastfeeding support | Cultural Sensitivity for Better Breastfeeding Outcomes (The National Institute for Children’s Health Quality [NICHQ]) |
| A breastfeeding support-related quality improvement initiative my hospital can join | Optimizing Newborn Nutrition (Georgia Perinatal Quality Collaborative [GaPQC]) |
| A directory of local and statewide resources for breastfeeding support | Zipmilk |
| Information on what legal rights my patients and I have for breastfeeding at our places of employment | Frequently Asked Questions: Pumping Breast Milk at Work (U.S. Department of Labor) |
| An overview of breastfeeding-related laws in Georgia | Breastfeeding Rights in Georgia: What You Need to Know (Georgia Birth Advocacy Coalition) |
About the Campaign
The Georgia State Physical Activity and Nutrition (G-SPAN) Breastfeeding Collaborative Action Team (CAT) focuses on enacting macro-level change that will address systematic barriers to achieving higher breastfeeding initiation and duration. For this reason, the group has elected to prioritize a social marketing campaign promoting breastfeeding best practices via social media with the key audience of health systems who interact with pregnant and postpartum people. We hope to:
- Promote the adoption of best practices for breastfeeding support by health systems so that their patients who are currently or planning to breastfeed receive improved support, and
- Mobilize the healthcare professional workforce to know their employment rights if they are currently or planning to breastfeed so that they can also benefit from breastfeeding-friendly working conditions.