This is the second webinar of NACCHO’s 8-part Every Step of the Way through the 1,000 days: Continuity of Care in Breastfeeding Support Blueprint series. This webinar will focus on Recommendation 1 of the Continuity of Care in Breastfeeding Support: A Blueprint for Communities. Presenters will discuss lactation support as a health promotion strategy, the importance of understanding the local lactation landscape through community assessments, and integrating lactation support into public health programs and community health improvement plans (CHIPs).
Human milk feeding positively impacts infant and maternal health, especially during public health emergencies. However, despite solid evidence from decades of infant feeding research establishing the importance of human milk and the risks of breast milk substitutes, there continues to be a failure to recognize the critical impact of lactation support as an overall health promotion strategy.
Including chest/breastfeeding indicators and efforts in county-wide community health assessments and community health improvement plans (CHA/CHIP) is a pivotal opportunity to improve population health and tackle health inequities. Partnerships with other community organizations enable leveraging multi-organizational resources, skills, and policies, and systems to expand service capacity and integrate breastfeeding support into other public health programs.
- Discuss lactation as a health promotion strategy
- Describe a community lactation landscape assessment process
- Identify at least one public health partnership to advance continuity of care in the community
- Describe the role of multisectoral partnership in establishing continuity of care in breastfeeding support