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The Nebraska Chapter of the Association Of Women’s Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses is having their spring conference on initiating breastfeeding. Get more info here.

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2012 Teleconference Series

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Title: "Baby Steps to Baby Friendly: Implementing Joint Commission's Exclusive Breastfeeding Core Measure"
Guest Speaker: Laura Wilwerding, M.D., IBCLC
Date: February 29, 2012
Time: 12 PM – 1 PM CST

BREAKING NEWS: By January 1, 2013, all of Kaiser Permanente’s 29 hospitals that offer maternal and child health services will be designated as Baby-Friendly, and/or participate in The Joint Commission’s Perinatal Core Measures program, which requires participating hospitals to report their rates of exclusive breastfeeding at discharge. Find out more here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded nearly $6 million over three years to the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality to help hospitals nationwide make quality improvements to maternity care to better support mothers and babies to be able to breastfeed. The goal of the project is accelerate the number of U.S. Baby-Friendly hospitals.

This project will address the need to improve hospital practices to support breastfeeding by helping hospitals move toward Baby-Friendly status. The core of the Baby-Friendly Initiative are the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, a bundle of science-based practices established by the World Health Organization and UNICEF as global criteria to improve breastfeeding rates. These criteria are endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“We know that breastfeeding rates are higher in Baby-Friendly hospitals, yet only 5 percent of babies in this country are born in these facilities,” said William H. Dietz, MD, Ph.D., director of CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity. “We need to help hospitals improve their maternity care to better support breastfeeding. This project takes steps to do that, and it offers real solutions to improve the health of mothers and babies.”

Breastfeeding is one of the most effective preventive measures a mother can take to protect the health of her infant. A CDC report from August highlighted the shortage of Baby-Friendly hospitals in the United States and outlined the importance of the hospital experience regarding infant feeding decisions.

As the award recipient, NICHQ will coordinate the following activities to increase the number of facilities in the United States designated Baby-Friendly:

Bring together staff throughout the hospital, including experts in breastfeeding and quality improvement, organization leadership, and other hospital workers to encourage system-level changes supportive of breastfeeding.
Complete a full range of activities to share best practices and lessons learned and develop evidence-based improvement plans.
Facilitate collaboration among facilities by enlisting experts in maternity care, breastfeeding, quality improvement, and other aspects of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.

For more information about breastfeeding, visit www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding.

If you haven't seen it yet, we've just posted the newest version of the CDC's 2011 Breastfeeding Report Card.

The Nebraska Breastfeeding Coalition is having their biennial membership drive and membership renewal!

Please join (or renew your membership) to the Coalition. You can find the application here! We are now equipped to process payment for dues or donations online. Find out more here.

Here are some ways Nebraskans celebrated World Breastfeeding Week 2011: The New Breastfeeding Report Card from the CDC was released and Nebraska was one of the leading states for baby-friendly facilities! Percent of births at Baby-Friendly facilities in 2011, by state
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Next week is World Breastfeeding Week!

To celebrate, the Nebraska Breastfeeding Coalition would like to spotlight different activities going on throughout the state.

Please send any event details, recaps, press releases, or photos to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it so I can post them on our website and social media sites.

Once past the initial two weeks of breastfeeding, the most common reason to give up breastfeeding is worry about inadequate milk supply. 95% of women concerned about milk supply are actually misunderstanding a baby's normal behavior. This ONLINE course, "Teaching Newborn Behavior to Extend Breastfeeding Duration," provides 1.5 "L" CERPS credit and costs $28. For more information click the image below:

In order to celebrate the passing of LB197, Nebraska's Breastfeeding Bill, we have created a few documents for you to download, print and distribute as needed!

Breastfeeding Anytime Cards