Step 1: Leadership Support for Breastfeeding (In Progress)
Celebration:
Guilford County is showing strong leadership by embedding breastfeeding work into the county-wide strategic planning process and aligning it with the Infant Mortality Task Force. The fact that breastfeeding is being integrated into broader maternal and child health policy conversations is a huge win. This approach ensures breastfeeding is not siloed but addressed as part of the county’s larger health equity strategy. They are also actively engaging their Breastfeeding Coalition and Every Baby Guilford as key partners, which grounds the work in both professional and community voices.
What They’re Already Doing:
- Planning a proclamation for August 2026 (National Breastfeeding Month).
Measures:
- Your community has a signed proclamation and/or policies that include action steps to support all the steps to becoming a Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community. Proclaim every 3 years. (1i)
- Your community routinely shares the signed proclamation/policies via social media and other local media outlets.
- Your community ensures that local media outlets host an annual discussion with chest/breastfeeding experts on this issue.
- Your community distributes a copy of the Ten Steps designation and the local policy/proclamation at least annually, ideally during World Breastfeeding Week or National Breastfeeding Month.
Step 2: Welcoming Atmosphere for Breastfeeding Families (In Progress)
Celebration:
Guilford County leaders are thinking expansively about making their communities visibly breastfeeding-friendly. Acknowledging the complexity of working with multiple municipal park systems, they wisely identified libraries as a first focus area. Libraries reach families across socioeconomic lines, are trusted community institutions, and can be early adopters of signage and staff training. At the same time, they are also exploring broader signage opportunities in parks, downtown spaces, airports, and sports facilities, recognizing the need for families to feel welcome wherever they go.
What They’re Already Doing:
- Identified community partners for signage initiatives: Guilford County Parks, Greensboro City Parks, High Point City Parks, Private downtown parks (LeBauer Park and Center City Park, both nonprofit-managed)
- Focusing this year’s work on libraries as a pilot site for signage and staff training.
- Considering future expansion to: Sports fields and youth recreation sites, airport facilities, downtown Greensboro and High Point, other highly visible public spaces, elementary schools, daycare facilities, and YMCAs
Measures:
- Your community has posted chest/breastfeeding “Welcome” signage next to the community’s welcome signs or in other prominent locations. (e
- Your community displays a chest/breastfeeding “Welcome” seal/logo on community websites and/or social media, or makes flyers available at visitor centers.
- Your community enforces federal or state laws that support public chest/breastfeeding.(e.g., North Carolina law states that mothers have the right to breastfeed anywhere they are legally allowed to be)
Step 3: Support from Health Leadership (In Progress)
Celebration:
Healthcare partners in Guilford are stepping forward in meaningful ways. Cone Health has launched a breastfeeding initiative aimed at reducing infant mortality, hired an IBCLC, and begun a Quality Improvement project focused on reducing unnecessary formula use by better educating both families and providers. This is a major strength to build on. At the same time, Guilford leaders recognize that High Point Medical Center (part of Advocate Health/Atrium/Wake Forest Baptist) has historically been less engaged and will require intentional relationship-building. Identifying this gap early is an important step in ensuring consistency across the county’s healthcare systems.
What They’re Already Doing:
Cone Health:
- Updating infant feeding policies to align with the WHO definition of optimal infant feeding.
- Actively recruiting and integrating IBCLC staff into care teams.
- Implementing a quality improvement project to identify barriers to lactogenesis and address prevalent misinformation.
High Point Medical Center (Advocate Health / Atrium / Wake Forest Baptist):
- Recently hired an IBCLC; however, engagement with community coalitions remains limited.
- History of resistance to collaborative initiatives, indicating the need for intentional and sustained outreach.
WIC & Public Health:
- Providing direct family support through education, classes, and counseling services.
- Currently implementing breastfeeding-friendly policies.
Measures:
- The Designating Team or your local Breastfeeding Coalition identifies the health leaders in your community, such as the local health department director, WIC office director, hospital board members, or head nurse at the local hospital. (3i)
- The defined health leaders have confirmed and approved the World Health Organization’s definition of optimal infant feeding, or an equivalent, and this definition has been disseminated to healthcare providers and community leaders.
Step 4: Information During Pregnancy (In Progress)
Celebration:
Cone Health is preparing branded prenatal materials for OB practices and is considering how these can be adapted for wider county-wide use. Community partners are eager for shared, non-commercial, culturally relevant resources to create consistent messaging across WIC, hospitals, home visiting programs, and community-based organizations. Guilford’s infrastructure—Every Baby Guilford, Healthy Steps specialists, and home visiting programs—creates an excellent foundation for distributing these resources and reinforcing breastfeeding education early in pregnancy.
What They’re Already Doing:
- Cone Health developing prenatal education materials for OB practices, MedCenter for Women, and potentially broader distribution.
- Strong home visiting program and community navigation infrastructure already in place.
- Interest in shared, evidence-based, multilingual messaging (English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, French).
- Ongoing QI project at Cone Health to analyze what pushes families to formula use.
Measures:
- Healthcare systems in your community distribute non-commercial materials about the benefits of chest/breastfeeding and the risks of unnecessary formula use to faith-based and community organizations (4i)
- Community-based organizations distribute non-commercial materials about the benefits of chest/breastfeeding and the risks of unnecessary formula use.
- Distributed materials are culturally appropriate and reflective of the population served.
- Distributed materials include information on where to access chest/breastfeeding support as needed.
Step 5: Breastfeeding-Friendly Healthcare (Planning)
Celebration:
Cornerstone Pediatrics in High Point has NC Family Friendly Clinic Award.
What They’re Already Doing:
- Cone Health used to have Baby-Friendly Hospital designation but this was dropped by executive leadership.
Measures:
- All maternity care centers in your community are designated Baby-Friendly or hold an equivalent state-level designation that supports chest/breastfeeding. (5i)
- At least 50% of prenatal and postnatal outpatient care clinics in your community have applied for or documented breastfeeding-friendly support and training.
Step 6 Availability of Lactation Support (In Progress)
Celebration:
The EBG website will offer visitors a comprehensive lactation support directory.
What They’re Already Doing:
- Guilford has completed a comprehensive lactation support directory and plans to publish it on the Every Baby Guilford website.
Measures:
- Your community has established or confirmed the availability of active chest/breastfeeding support groups.(6i)
- Your community has established or confirmed the availability of Lactation Consultants: International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) and other skilled lactation support services.
- Make a comprehensive resource list of the lactation support (support groups, IBCLCs, classes, etc) in your community.
- Special attention is given to ensuring that lactation support services meet the needs of marginalized and underserved communities.
- At least one in-person or virtual meeting has been held annually to coordinate chest/breastfeeding support efforts in your community.
- Your community has communicated information about available lactation support services to the public at least once annually.
Step 7: Welcoming Businesses and Organizations (In Progress)
Celebration:
Calculated how many businesses in Guilford County would be required to meet this requirement. The estimated resident population of Guilford County, North Carolina is 558,816 (as of July 1, 2024). So there is roughly one business per 500 residents = about 1,118 total businesses needed to reach that benchmark in Guilford County.
What They’re Already Doing:
- 26 Businesses have completed a form to support the Making It Work program on the Every Baby Guilford (EBG) website
- Planned pilot for launching Community Choice recognition and feature winners on EBG website.
Measures:
- Your community has calculated the number of businesses needed to meet the Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community requirement: 24 (11,672/500= 23.34) (Total population / 500).(7i)
- At least one business for every 500 people in your community has signed a form stating they welcome chest/breastfeeding in their place of business.
- These businesses display welcome signs or a “Breastfeeding Welcome” logo.
Step 8: Adherence to the Code of Marketing (Planning)
Measures:
- Healthcare facilities in your community provide chest/breastfeeding education and support to parents without promoting commercial infant formula through ads or free samples.(8i)
- Locally-controlled grocery stores in your community do not promote commercial infant or related toddler formula through preferential shelf placement or ads.
- Locally-controlled food markets and convenience stores in your community do not promote commercial infant or related toddler formula through preferential shelf placement or ads.
- Locally-controlled pharmacies in your community do not promote commercial infant or related toddler formula through preferential shelf placement or ads.
- Non-locally controlled grocery stores, food markets, convenience stores, and pharmacies in your community are encouraged to display lactation support information near infant formula/foods and to prevent local advertising of formula.
Step 9: Workplace Accommodation for Lactating Employees
Measures:
- The current state of the laws concerning mandated business support for chest/breastfeeding is made available to all Chamber of Commerce members, similar business groups, and other businesses (e.g., U.S. Dept. of labor materials provided by local chest/breastfeeding organization or health department) annually.(9i)
- The Chamber of Commerce, or a similar organization, disseminates the US Business Case for Breastfeeding, WABA maternity care, or equivalent materials annually.
Step 10: Education Systems Include Breastfeeding in Curriculum (Planning)
Measures:
- The local School District or Department of Education provides books and/or images that illustrate chest/breastfeeding as the norm.(10i)
- Chest/breastfeeding-friendly curricula are introduced at all levels of education.
- Your community’s preschools and early education centers include chest/breastfeeding-friendly curricula in their programs.
- Your public school system has introduced chest/breastfeeding-friendly curricula at all educational levels.
- Universities in your community include chest/breastfeeding-friendly curricula in relevant courses or programs.