The Impact of Hospital Resources and Availability of Professional Lactation Support on Maternity Care: Results of Breastfeeding Surveys 2009-2014.

Background: Breastfeeding provides maternal and infant health benefits. Maternity care practices encompassed in the 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding are positively associated with improved breastfeeding outcomes. This study assessed changes in maternity care practices and lactation support.

Breastfeeding-Friendly Erie County: Establishing a Baby Café Network.

Community-based lactation support groups help improve breastfeeding duration by offering practical peer and professional help and counseling through the sharing of information and experiences in a relaxed setting. The objective of this project, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was to establish at least 5 Baby Cafés in organizations that reach low-income women living in a high-need, racially/ethnically diverse, urban county with 1 of the lowest rates of breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity, and duration in New York. The New York State Department of Health partnered with the P(2) Collaborative of Western New York and United Way of Buffalo & Erie County's Healthy Start Healthy Future for All Coalition to facilitate the recruitment of 11 community-based agencies in Erie County, New York, to provide and/or enhance breastfeeding support.

Implementing Legislation to Improve Hospital Support of Breastfeeding, New York State, 2009-2013.

Introduction: Increasing breastfeeding is a public health priority supported by strong evidence. In 2009, New York passed Public Health Law § 2505-a, requiring that hospitals support the World Health Organization's (WHO's) recommended "Ten Steps for Successful Breastfeeding" (Ten Steps). This legislation strengthened and codified existing New York State's hospital perinatal regulations.

Breastfeeding-Friendly Erie County: Establishing the New York State Breastfeeding Friendly Practice Designation.

Background: Primary care providers play an important role in encouraging and counseling pregnant and postpartum women to successfully breastfeed.

Objective: One objective of this 1-year grant was to establish the Breastfeeding Friendly Practice Designation criteria and process to identify and designate at least 5 primary care practices as New York State Breastfeeding Friendly Practices in a high-need, racially/ethnically diverse, urban county in New York with very low prevalence of breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity, and duration.

Methods: A partnership between the New York State Department of Health and the P(2) Collaborative of Western New York and United Way of Buffalo & Erie County's Healthy Start Healthy Future for All Coalition facilitated the development of the New York State Ten Steps to a Breastfeeding Friendly Practice, accompanying implementation guide, designation criteria, and model office policies.