Breastfeeding duration rates and factors affecting continued breastfeeding among infants born at an inner-city US Baby-Friendly hospital.

The effects of Baby-Friendly status on breastfeeding duration in the United States have not been published. The objectives of this study were to obtain breastfeeding rates at 6 months among babies born in a US Baby-Friendly hospital and to assess factors associated with continued breastfeeding at 6 months. The authors randomly selected 350 medical records of infants born in 2003 at Baby-Friendly Boston Medical Center.

The effect of peer counselors on breastfeeding rates in the neonatal intensive care unit: results of a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To determine whether peer counselors impacted breastfeeding duration among premature infants in an urban population.

Design: This was a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Setting: The trial was conducted in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Boston Medical Center, an inner-city teaching hospital with approximately 2000 births per year.

Breast pump access in the inner city: a hospital-based initiative to provide breast pumps for low-income women.

An effective electric breast pump is an important tool for the management of breastfeeding challenges such as provision of human milk to sick or premature infants. A breast pump is also, in Western culture, critical for breastfeeding mothers who return to work. Obtaining an effective electric breast pump can be particularly difficult for uninsured or impoverished women because of the expense, complicated insurance reimbursements, and scarcity of providers that supply breast pumps to the inner-city community.

Breastfeeding rates in US Baby-Friendly hospitals: results of a national survey.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to analyze all available breastfeeding data from US Baby-Friendly hospitals in 2001 to determine whether breastfeeding rates at Baby-Friendly designated hospitals differed from average US national, regional, and state rates in the same year and to determine prime barriers to implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.

Methods: In 2001, 32 US hospitals had Baby-Friendly designation. Using a cross-sectional design with focused interviews, this study surveyed all 29 hospitals that retained that designation in 2003.

Calls to an inner-city hospital breastfeeding telephone support line.

Support for breastfeeding mothers after they leave the hospital is often inadequate in low-income, inner-city areas where few resources are available. In becoming a Baby-Friendly Hospital, inner-city Boston Medical Center established a breastfeeding telephone support line to overcome this discrepancy. Records of support line calls for the first 5 years of operation were reviewed to record the level of need and determine reasons for use.