Breastfeed Orange NC (https://breastfeedorangenc.org) is celebrating National Breastfeeding Month with gratitude and joy, new energy and enthusiasm! Throughout the month, we have been recognizing our stakeholders and advocates and expanding our presence in the community to create a more breastfeeding-friendly environment for families in Orange County. We also have welcomed a team of students who will provide new perspectives and fresh insight into the work of Breastfeed Orange NC.
Expanding and Celebrating Our Business Community
One important area of focus during National Breastfeeding Month is our business community. Team members are reaching out to businesses and organizations that they visit regularly to apply for the Community Partner and Employer award. Over the years, our team has gained invaluable insights. They were true lessons learned for our team.
- Familiar Places: Visiting a business that we visit regularly, one that is in our neighborhood or where we may know the owners and employees, is a lot less intimidating, especially when getting started, and can be a lot of fun.
- Paper Beats Clicks: Bringing a paper copy of our application that our busy business owners can complete quickly while we are there – one page with check boxes to affirm their support – is more successful than asking business owners to find time to complete an online application later.
- Elevator Speech: Encouraging businesses to become Community Partners and having an “elevator speech” that focuses on the positive things happening in our community and their role…
- Town governments have proclaimed their commitment
- Our hospital re-designated as Baby-friendly Hospital
- Orange County Health Department received the Family Friendly Clinic Award from the NC Breastfeeding Coalition.
- (Stating with enthusiasm that) our business community is supportive and we want families to know about their support, too.
With these lessons-learned in hand, we also have had great success this National Breastfeeding Month going door-to-door, visiting businesses we do not know, and encouraging them to sign on to the initiative to create a supportive environment for breastfeeding families. (The elevator speech is especially helpful in these situations!) The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with local businesses eager to join the initiative and contribute to a more inclusive, welcoming community.
Breastfeed Orange NC also has been assisting employers to develop policies that welcome and support lactating employees. As part of the Employer award, businesses affirm that they provide lactation spaces (not a bathroom!) and flexible break times for employees to express milk or nurse their children. Our employers are recognizing the importance of supportive lactation policies in their workplace, even when their current employees are not lactating, and are requesting assistance to create lactation policies that welcome and support and reassure lactating employees of their support.
Thanking and Celebrating Our Childcare Community
As part of our focus on Community Partners and Employers this month, we did not want to forget our childcare programs. These past few years have been challenging for the programs. Many are working hard just to stay open and might not have the capacity to complete the local or state Breastfeeding Friendly Child Care designation application. They can, however, affirm their support for lactating families and employees by completing the Community Partner and Employer award. We are thankful for the enthusiasm and support of the childcare programs in our community!
This month, we were able to say “thank you” with books and rack cards. The books help to normalize breastfeeding, chestfeeding, and human milk feeding in the classroom – sometimes as the focus of the book and sometimes in a quieter way as simply the way the baby is fed as a part of the day’s activities.
Why books and rack cards? The Breastfeed Orange NC team has been working with childcare programs to provide books, trainings, and curriculum materials to normalize breastfeeding, chestfeeding, and human milk feeding for young children and their families. It is a challenge to normalize breastfeeding when children do not see breastfeeding in the images in books and other resources in the classroom. Books provide a beautiful way to show nursing and can generate conversations with the children about how humans are fed as babies. The rack cards offer information on local lactation support for families. Beyond just saying thank you, both resources can help the childcare programs complete the designation application, when they are ready.
We also need to give a shout out to a dedicated Breastfeed Orange NC stakeholder, the Orange County Partnership for Young Children (OCPYC)! The OCPYC team works enthusiastically with childcare programs, providing technical assistance and resources to help childcare programs become Community Partners and Employers and Breastfeeding Friendly Child Care programs. They also have provided funding to print the rack cards. Thank you to OCPYC!
Engaging With The University Student Community
National Breastfeeding Month also begins a school-year-long partnership with a team of students from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health Capstone program. The Capstone team will work together with Breastfeed Orange NC towards the Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities of Carrboro designation. This collaboration will bring fresh perspectives and resources to the initiative, furthering its goals and promoting breastfeeding-friendly communities, while offering the students hands-on community experiences.
The Capstone team will receive support, guidance, mentorship, and access to Breastfeed Orange NC resources throughout the year. We look forward to the Capstone team’s dedication to delivering on the project’s expectations and their valuable contributions towards a more supportive community for lactating families. Through regular blog posts, the Capstone team will document their journey. By sharing their challenges and successes, we hope that other communities will be inspired to embark on similar initiatives and continue working towards a more inclusive world for all breastfeeding, chestfeeding, and human milk feeding families.
National Breastfeeding Month is the start of a new year of growth and possibilities for Breastfeed Orange NC!
HAPPY NEW YEAR and THANK YOU to our Orange County community, our stakeholders and advocates! Our community supports lactating families!