Lactation Room Success!

THE ROOM - A712
During National Public Health week we were able to meet with the Dean. He was happy to unveil A712 -the site of GSPH's new, dedicated, lactation room. He apparently has been working with Deb Ryan over the past several months to identify a suitable space.

The room is fantastic and as of late last week it has been cleared out and is ready for use. It has a little refrigerator to store expressed milk and there is a filing cabinet with many deep drawers that can be used to sore pumps. There is a desk with a chair as well as a smaller round table and a very comfy chair. And, there are outlets in the room, plus an extension cord that can accommodate different seating arrangements.

Through a photovoice project for an advanced qualitative methods class, some additional things have been identified to make the room more welcoming, tranquil and conducive to milk expression. We are thinking of having a hot water kettle and some tea, plants in the window for privacy and beauty, and possibly a lamp, an iPod docking station, and some energy bars. If anyone has an idea and/or would like to contribute in some way, please do!

The room will be mostly taken care of by its users, so I hope to create an atmosphere of creativity and self-sustainability. I also have some nice breastfeeding posters that I will hang up but there is also a bulletin board and room for women to hang their own pictures of their babies if they wish.

THE POLICIES
This piece will take some more time and collaboration. The Dean has invited us to draft some breastfeeding policies for staff, faculty, and students. They will then be present to the EPCC (Educational Policies Curriculum Committee) which in turn will bring it to the GSPH Council.

It is necessary to have supportive policies in place to ensure that women feel that they have a right to take the time they need to pump. This should also be something that is above and beyond the lunch hour since lactating women need to be particularly well nourished.

If anyone would like to work on this, let me know. I will send out drafts to the group and will incorporate feedback as received.

The other good news is that the Dean is in full support of making this a model program and we do not have to keep it a secret. We can promote it! So, please let women know they can use it. For now, please have them email me and I will send them the code so that we can track the number of women using it.

Thank you to everyone for their participation and support for making this work!

We will still continue to move forward with the gathering of information for the benchmarking of similar institutions with the goal of having a comprehensive Lactation Support Program implemented across the University of Pittsburgh.

Wear a Baby - Wear a Teddy Day!

Thursday, April 8th 2010
Help increase maternal, infant, and child health awareness by wearing a baby, wearing a teddy for a day.

WearABabyFlyer.doc

Plan Coming Into Focus

Events for National Public Health Awareness week are coming together we have had a really great response from breastfeeding experts in the community.



Here is the schedule:

Thursday, April 8th
Wear a Baby Day! - Wear a Teddy Day!
Bring your "baby" (teddy bear, baby doll) to work/school day to increase awareness around combining breastfeeding and working, maternal and child health, and population health

10:30am - 12:30pm in 109
Todd Wolynn, MD (Pediatrician and Founder of the Breastfeeding Center of Pittsburgh)
http://www.breastfeedingcenterofpittsburgh.com/

Judy Gutowski, IBCLC (Vice Chair PA Breastfeeding Coalition)
http://www.pabreastfeeding.org/

They will present and discuss the policy/system levels factors influencing breastfeeding outcomes, including how what must be done to reach Healthy People 2020 goals. http://www.healthypeople.gov/

2:30-4:00 in 109
Cindy Garrison, IBCLC (Magee Women's Hospital)
Lactation Center at Magee

Nellie Wiancko, IBCLC (Allegheny County Health Department)
http://www.achd.net/
(Breastfeeding Rates for Allegheny County)

Laura Macia, (PhD student in Anthro, co-leader of 9 Lunas, a support group for new Latina mothers)

They will have a round table/panel discussion about community level factors influencing breastfeeding outcomes and what different intervention points look like. Personal experiences, observations about the impact on public health, and why we should do something about it.


Breastfeeding Help

Magee-Womens Hospital — offers a class in prenatal preparation for breastfeeding: (412) 802-8299
Magee-Womens Hospital Lactation Center: (412) 641-1121
WIC Program — lactation specialist available to WIC participants: (412) 350-3163
Breastfeeding Helpline — Allegheny County Health Department: (412) 247-1000
LaLeche League — support for breastfeeding moms: (412) 276-5630


We will also be creating and handing out facts about breastfeeding and maternal and child health.

Benchmarking Spreadsheet

I just shared with April a link to the benchmarking spreadsheet that I started. It still needs lots of work. So if anyone has the time or inclination to call or contact a school to find out if they have any formal or informal lactation support programs, it would be super helpful.

We need to add a few more comparison schools of public health -- I will check to see what we used for our DrPH/PhD proposals.

Here is a link to a google spreadsheet. If you click on it, I think you will have the ability to enter info and save it. I think we can share it this way.

http://tinyurl.com/ykhlsf5

(I originally shared the wrong spreadsheet -- this one should be the benchmarking with a list of italicized universities that Pitt uses as comparison schools)

Planning for Public Health Awareness Week

So, you are receiving this email because you have indicated some interest in the promotion of breastfeeding and maternal/infant/child wellness at Pitt and GSPH. Several of us have been brainstorming and starting to organize some events for Public Health Awareness Week - April 5th-9th, 2010. This year's theme is community!

Since this is right around the corner we are hoping to meet this week to go over everyone's ideas and to see what creative promotional/interactive things we can come up with to increase awareness around breastfeeding and maternal/child health. Go to http://www.doodle.com/wb2pscvz4d82ast6 to mark what days/times work for you if you would like to work on MCH stuff for Public Health Awareness Week.

So far we have the following plans in the works:

Thursday, April 8th

We have 109 reserved from 10:30-12:30 and again 2:30-4:30.

We were thinking of showing The Business of Being Born (84 minutes) at 10:30am - but are open to other possibilities, movies, activities, speakers, etc.

For the afternoon slot, 2:30-4:30 I am in the process of putting together a panel of local community oriented breastfeeding experts: Nellie Wiancko, a lactation consultant with the Allegheny County Health Department, and one lactation consultant from Magee,Cindy Garrison. I am in conversations with Todd Wolynn a Pediatrician and founder of the Breastfeeding center of Pittsburgh and Judy Gutkowski, Vice Chair of the PA Breastfeeding Coallition. Both have indicated an interest and desire to attend but details are still being worked out.

If you know of anyone else that we should invite and that would like to participate on any level in any way, please let me know. Creativity is good! We should also consider doing something during one of the other days of Public Health Awareness week. We shouldn't limit ourselves to Thursday necessarily!

Lastly, as many of you know, I am also in the process of organizing a Wear a Baby Day on Thursday, April 8th to raise awareness around mothers in the workplace, breastfeeding, and maternal and child health.

Someone also suggested that anyone who has one, could also lug around their pump for a day -- so that people can be aware, so they can see how heavy and clunky they are to transport all over the place! I think this is a great idea!

We need help with collecting pithy factoids about maternal child health and breastfeeding to pass out the day of Wear a Baby Day, also in getting the word out about the events as we finalize the details. We should go for as much publicity as possible!

I think it is time to submit our "proposal" for the creation of a lactation room at GSPH. She asked that I put the basic requirements in a one page format which I have done. I think our proposal package should include the following items:

1) one page lactation room needs list (minimum space, equipment, etc) - Done

2) a brochure designed by the Business Case for Breastfeeding HHS.gov folks - Done

3) a copy of the needs survey that we created - Done

4) benchmarking info (regarding other schools of Public health)- Still need to gather information on a few more schools

5) a signed petition. (I thought we could collect signature during public health awareness week and have that be the final component to our proposal.)

Thank you for your interest and support in putting research into practice! I feel that we are close to making some substantial impact and progress in paving the way for students, faculty and staff who are trying to combine returning to work and school with new motherhood and breastfeeding. - Natalie