Fall Edition · 2026

Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities

for a more breastfeeding, chestfeeding, & human milk feeding,

family-friendly community

Community Chronicle

Fall 2026 Edition

From the halls of power:

• New lactation billing codes are coming in January
• The AAP names community health workers first

Communities, lived out:

• Arkansas proclaims Breastfeeding Month
• EMBRACe stands on its own

SAFE Infant Feeding:

• Voices from the Storm

Save the Dates: Communities Stay aBreast

• See below for upcoming event dates

Dear Friends,

National Breastfeeding Month is behind us, and every fall I ask myself the same question: what did we build that will still be standing next August?

This season offered a few answers. Two new lactation billing codes take effect in January 2027, one real piece of the puzzle in paying for lactation care. The American Academy of Pediatrics named partnership with community health workers as its first strategy for lactation equity. The Governor of Arkansas proclaimed August 2026 as Arkansas Breastfeeding Month. A leader putting support in writing is where Step 1 of the Ten Steps begins, and here it is at the scale of a whole state.

Some of it is being tested, too. A proposed Head Start rule would drop the breastfeeding supports programs that are required to provide today, and comments are due October 6. And late September marked two years since Hurricane Helene reached Western North Carolina, a reminder that the plan for feeding babies in a crisis has to exist before the storm.

None of this belongs to one organization. It belongs to everyone who keeps showing up after the month is over.

Thank you for being one of them.

With gratitude,

Love Anderson

President & CEO, Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities

New lactation billing codes are coming in January. Two new CPT codes take effect in January 2027. As pediatrician Dr. Emily Hannon, IBCLC, reads them, they let a physician or other qualified health care professional bill for care from a lactation consultant employed in their practice. They do not address payment for the community-based and independent lactation support providers so many families rely on, and that work continues. We share her view from inside a pediatric practice alongside the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee's guidance. The final rule is expected later this fall.

Read: What They Are and What They Are Not

The AAP names community health workers first. A new American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement lays out how pediatricians and health systems can address racism and bias to reduce racial disparities in breastfeeding. The first strategy it names is partnership with community health workers, the same premise the Ten Steps rest on.

Read our take · Read the policy statement

Arkansas proclaims Breastfeeding Month. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders proclaimed August 2026 Arkansas Breastfeeding Month. The proclamation was developed with Vivian Okanume of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, whose work helps child care centers support breastfeeding families. Want your town, county, or state to do the same?

Read the story · Start with our proclamation guide

EMBRACe stands on its own. In Chatham County, EMBRACe, the coalition that grew out of our Ten Steps work, is now an independent nonprofit carrying the work forward under its own name and leadership. This is what we hope for every community: work that outlasts any one organization. Their 3rd Annual EMBRACe Retreat is October 10 (see Save the Dates).

Read the story

Around the network

• At the Uplifting Black and Brown Lactation Success (UBBLS) Conference in August, Love Anderson received the Innovation in Human Lactation Award. We share it with everyone who does this work alongside us. Read her VoyageRaleigh interview
• This fall we begin coalition coaching with statewide partners in West Virginia, following an August webinar there. Want support like this for your coalition? Work with us
• Our student team this year: Juliette Louer, Allyson Flores, Lavette Williams, and Ijeamaka Achebe, working on everything from the statewide Ten Steps assessment to infant feeding in emergencies policy.

Voices from the Storm. Two years after Hurricane Helene, the SAFE Infant Feeding Team is telling the story of feeding babies in Western North Carolina when the water rose, in 25 pieces. It follows Love's account and the volunteers, coordinators, and site staff who did the work, in their own words. The first pieces are out now, with more on the way.

Read the series

Our full calendar lives at breastfeedingcommunities.org/events. All times Eastern.

• Sat, Oct 10, 9:30 am to 4:00 pm. 3rd Annual EMRACe Retreat, Siler City, NC. (Free or pay what you can, registration required). 
• Sat, Oct 10, 1:00 to 2:00 pm. When the System Stops: IYCF in Emergencies in Appalachia. Brandi Harrison, Jayne Carpenter, and Love Anderson at the 6th Appalachian Breastfeeding Conference, Wheeling, WV.
• Tue, Oct 20. Art of Breastfeeding Conference: Lactation Hot Topics, Wake AHEC, McKimmon Center, Raleigh. Come find our exhibit table. 
• Mon, Oct 26, 4:00 to 5:30 pm. BFFC Board Meeting. Every meeting opens with a five-minute update from a partner community, and partners join virtually for their turn. Want yours? Send one image, one slide, or a few sentences to newsletter@breastfeedingcommunities.org
• Thu, Oct 29, noon to 1:00 pm. NC Breastfeeding Coalition Statewide Meeting: Year-End Wrap-Up. (Virtual, free).
• Tue, Nov 3, 1:00 to 2:30 pm. SAFE Support and Strategic Core (S3C), for people doing infant feeding in emergencies work on the ground who have foundational IYCF-E knowledge. (Virtual, free, registration required).
• Mon, Nov 9, 2:00 to 3:00 pm (11:00 am Pacific). The Invisible Infrastructure: Securing First Food in the Wake of Hurricane Helene. Ashley Mickelson and Love Anderson at the IAEM Annual Conference, Long Beach, CA. Their article also appears in the October IAEM Bulletin.

Did your community mark National Breastfeeding Month? Send us one photo and two sentences, and we'll share it in an upcoming issue. We love hearing about events, celebrations, and opportunities too.

Please email BFFC if you have any upcoming events, celebrations, or opportunities you'd like us to share in our upcoming newsletters. 

• Updated CDC Early Childhood Nutrition Report 2025
• NASEM Breastfeeding in the United States Report
• MAHA Strategy Report Includes Breastfeeding Commitments
• McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility Report on Closing the Black Maternal-Health Gap
• New: Niskanen Center, Family Benefits in America: 2025 State Report Card, North Carolina
• New: Columbia Center on Poverty and Social Policy, The Role of Tax Credits and Transfers in Reducing State-Level Poverty: A 50-State Analysis

Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities is a community-wide program to impact Health Equity by advocating for policies and practices that support optimal infant feeding. Any municipality or incorporated region may complete the Ten Steps self-appraisal. Work begins when two or more community members come together to lead the community in satisfying the requirements of the Ten Steps to a Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community.

Is your community interested in beginning the designation process to becoming a Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community? Contact us for resources to help your community get started on the journey. Take the first step and fill out our interest form.

Pull the thread that’s yours.

If reading is all you do this month, that counts. And if one of these stories tugs at you — enough to share it, or to ask one workplace, clinic, church, or childcare center near you for a lactation space — follow it. That’s a stitch.

One thread at a time is how a cape gets woven.