Community Chronicle

First Edition: August 2021

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.

Celebrating August!

August is an exciting month for breast/chestfeeding advocates and families! World Breastfeeding Week takes place August 1-7, and the entire month of August is National Breastfeeding Month! That means that there is an entire month focused on breast/chestfeeding, celebrating nursing families, building community awareness, and re-energizing advocacy work. In this first edition of the Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities newsletter, we celebrate World Breastfeeding Week and National Breastfeeding Month along with our growing family of Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities.

Asheville/Buncombe County, North Carolina
Chatham County, North Carolina (beginning in August)
Durham, North Carolina
Elizabeth City, North Carolina
Hampton Roads Region, Virginia
Hendersonville/Henderson County, North Carolina
Orange County, North Carolina
Pennsylvania
RVAbreastfeeds, Richmond, Virginia
South Bend, Indiana

Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities (BFFC) embrace the themes - the visions and goals - of these campaigns!

Protecting Breastfeeding: A Shared Responsibility.

The 2021 WABA World Breastfeeding Week campaign reminds us that all families should have access to lactation support from “health facilities, workplaces, and communities.”

Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities put this into practice! Our communities follow the Ten Steps to a Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community, recognizing that supporting families to meet their infant feeding goals goes beyond individual support to a shared community responsibility.

Every Step of the Way

The theme for this year’s USBC National Breastfeeding Month “[envisions] a world in which every family is supported at every step along the infant feeding journey...so that the needs of lactating families and those who support them are anticipated and met, every step of the way.”

Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities share this vision, working to provide resources and education in all the places that families go - government, healthcare, childcare, businesses and workplaces, schools - to help the community to support lactating families, especially in the important transition from the hospital to community life. Within this work, we focus on health equity so that every family is welcomed and supported to meet their infant feeding goals.

Our Communities

Insights & Inspiration

In celebration of World Breastfeeding Week and National Breastfeeding Month, we asked implementation teams from our Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities for insights into the challenges and celebrations, the current tasks and goals, that are a part of building a welcoming, equitable community for breast/chestfeeding families. Their thoughtful responses reveal the hard work, humor, resourcefulness, and uniqueness of each BFFC community. We hope that the information will inspire your community to begin the journey to become a Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community.

Moving Through Challenges

In celebration of World Breastfeeding Week and National Breastfeeding Month, implementation team members from our Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities were approached for insights into the challenges and celebrations, the current tasks and goals, that are a part of building a welcoming, equitable community for breast/chestfeeding families.

Lessons Learned

In the second article, Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities share the projects and events that they are working on now and the lessons that they have learned. The responses revealed both the similarities in focus of the communities and their unique needs.

Sharing Goals

In this third article, Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities share their short-term goals. Their responses reveal not only the hard work but the humor and resourcefulness of each community.

Let’s Celebrate!

The final question in this four-part series focuses on celebrations. Sometimes it is too easy to only see the work ahead or the work undone. This question provided an opportunity to reflect on all the work already completed and how our communities are carrying on and working through challenges and lessons learned.

Time to Take a Closer Look!

Why do we need a World Breastfeeding Week or a National Breastfeeding Month? For many, it looks like breastfeeding is everywhere. Yes, there has been progress, yet, this is the time to take a closer look at the state of infant feeding throughout the world.