Start a Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community

Work begins when two or more community members come together to form a local Designation Team and begin working through the Ten Steps to a Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community. You do not need a budget, a coalition, or a single step completed. Start by reading the Ten Steps, then see how communities get going.

The community supports families in many ways!

It is a difficult time with pressing challenges for communities to support families, and we may wonder how international events intersect with the protection, promotion, and support of breast/chestfeeding.  It often is an underrepresented health equity issue in support of families. The health inequities around breast/chestfeeding continue to compromise the optimal growth and development of children and their families.

Breast/chestfeeding is essential for maternal and child health. We recognize that it is “The Great Equalizer,” as James P. Grant of UNICEF called it, impacting health equity outcomes at all ages and stages of life. Parents today initiate breast/chestfeeding in the hospital; however, many will stop within a few days or weeks due to social or community pressures. A Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community helps to remove social and community pressures to create a healthier, more welcoming community for families.

Work with us

Health departments, coalitions and funders hire BFFC to bring the Ten Steps to their community. We started in Durham, North Carolina in 2018 with $200 and a dining room table. Durham now has a coalition of more than 2,000 advocates, nearly 400 recognized businesses and organizations, a county strategic plan for human milk feeding, and an infant mortality rate that fell sharply in the years that followed. The same community infrastructure became the backbone of the Hurricane Helene infant feeding response.

We can do this with you. From a single presentation to a full implementation partnership, there is a way to start that fits your capacity and budget.