July 2022

Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities

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

family-friendly community

Community Chronicle

July 2022

August is almost here! Another year has passed!

We are ready to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week and National Breastfeeding Month!

How do we measure a year? Is it just a calendar event starting on January 1? Is it the constraints of a fiscal year? For Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities (BFFC), August – National Breastfeeding Month – is our measure. It’s the month in which we celebrate and remember, reflect, re-energize, renew and re-commit!  

Thank you to our communities and advocates! You continue to work for birth and lactation equity. Supporting families is not for the faint of heart! This year has been stress-filled and overwhelming. We renew our commitment to building welcoming communities that work towards ending disparities and fostering equity and support in birthing and lactation support.

As we enter into National Breastfeeding Month, we present some critical issues and our commitments to address them:

• Disparities in infant and perinatal mortality persist and have increased during the pandemic. Throughout the year, we will continue to draw these issues to the attention of our policy makers, and we welcome the continued opportunity to raise a collective voice, such as during Black Maternal Health Week in April, Black Babies Awareness Month: Centering a National Black Child Agenda in November!
• The infant formula shortage continues to impact the family's ability to safely feed their infants and young children. During this stressful time, formula manufacturers continue with egregious marketing practices to pregnant families and those who are not even pregnant yet. We renew our commitment to work with businesses and manufacturers to raise awareness of marketing practices that undermine chest/breastfeeding and to promote compliance with the WHO Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.
• Federal paid leave protection and other policies that would give more parents the option to chest/breastfeed have stalled. We believe that the American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement: Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk recommendations support optimal infant and young child growth and development. Yet, we also know that federal paid leave protection and other federal policies are vital to ensure equity in access to the protections for families and critical to supporting families to meet their feeding goals. We remain committed to advocating for paid leave and other policies that foster equitable protections for families to meet the needs of their infants and young children.  
• Changes in federal protections for reproductive and birth health are leaving many current and future chest/breastfeeding families with difficult decisions and few safe alternatives for health and well-being. In addition, health inequities persist. We recognize the importance of collective efforts to restore equity in birthing and lactation for the health and safety of families.
• And finally, it is difficult to avoid the heat this summer, when a third of the country has been struggling under extreme heat advisories. Understanding best practices in infant feeding in emergencies is an urgent need nationally and globally, as more families and communities are impacted by the heat. We are committed to building awareness within BFFC to be able to provide resources that support our communities' responses to infant feeding in emergencies.

We embrace the National Breastfeeding Month theme – Together We Can Do Great Things – to use our collective power and impact to support equity and justice in birthing, breastfeeding, chestfeeding and human milk feeding in our communities, nationally and globally. 

Join us for a virtual Meet and Greet

to learn about Breastfeeding Friendly Child Care! 

When: Monday, August 15th, at 1pm

Where: https://meet.google.com/jnc-qkfb-kmr

Whether you already are on the Breastfeeding Friendly Child Care journey, or you are just getting started, this meet and greet is for you!  WELCOME!

Discover the Breastfeeding Friendly Child Care Ten Steps!  Learn how you can provide support that is equitable and culturally-responsible to meet the needs of your nursing families and staff!  Ask questions! Find resources! 

After what (you may be asking)?!

After the National Breastfeeding Month celebrations...

After the events...!

After the social media posts...!

After the proclamations...!

Join us for a virtual get-together. 

When: Thursday, September 8th, at 1pm

Where: https://meet.google.com/sqr-wscg-owb

• • • Discover the Ten Steps to a Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community! 
    • Ask questions! 
    • Gather ideas for expanding your program!
    • Share your goals for centering equity, inclusion, and universal access!

Overwhelmed with challenges? We hear you! We hope that we can support each other...restore energy...renew commitment! 

Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities is honored and privileged to provide support to our communities. We celebrate their passion and energy in creating welcoming communities. From healthcare to childcare, from government proclamations to lactation support, from business awards to employer support, our communities have been non-stop in their efforts to provide education, resources, and advocacy in every aspect of community life. Why? Because families need to be supported in all the places that they live, birth, work, play, shop, dine...

We also welcomed new communities this year, and all continue to fully commit to the vision (of)

...a world in which communities make a commitment to equitable policies and practices to protect and promote the rights of all breastfeeding, chestfeeding, and human milk feeding families; and to support all families to meet their breastfeeding, chestfeeding, and human milk feeding goals.

Check out their websites! (https://breastfeedingcommunities.org/our-communities/) 

• Asheville/Buncombe County, North Carolina

• Chatham County, North Carolina

• Durham, North Carolina

• Elizabeth City, North Carolina

• Hampton Roads Region, Virginia

• Hendersonville/Henderson County, North Carolina

• Lycoming Clinton, Pennsylvania

• Orange County, North Carolina

• Pennsylvania

• RVAbreastfeeds, Richmond, Virginia

• South Bend, Indiana

We look forward to welcoming new community partners. 

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.

Contact us for resources to help your community get started on the journey. 

Using the Ten Steps to a Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community (Ten Steps), we will provide education, mentorship, and assistance to communities as they work to make changes so that every family that is chest/breastfeeding will be able to do so in a space that is welcoming and supportive of their efforts. With your donation, these communities are able to engage with local businesses, child care centers, and health care providers to support breast/chestfeeding families. 

 Donate Today | contact@breastfeedingcommunities.org

Together, we can make a difference!