Breastfeeding support in Wake County with a focus on child care: decreasing obesity, increasing health

 

From: UNC The Carolina Breastfeeding Institute

Need:
Although Wake County reports an 83.8% breastfeeding initiation rate, only 30.4% of babies are still being breastfed at six months. Mothers who use child care services are less likely to breastfeed due to inadequate child care facility support and inadequate worksite accommodation.

Purpose:
The purpose of this project is to improve maternal and child health outcomes in Wake County through increased breastfeeding duration and exclusivity by capitalizing on licensed child care centers as facilitators of exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continued breastfeeding to at least one year.

How:

  1. Convene stakeholders to assist in the development and implementation of program, and to ensure sustainability. Stakeholders include: NC Breastfeeding Coalition, Triangle Breastfeeding Alliance, Wake County Child Care Health Consultants, NC Child Care Services Association, NC Division of Child Development, Wake County WIC, Wake County Smart Start, Wake County Child Care Subsidy Services, and others.
  2. Conduct needs assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to breastfeeding among child care providers.
  3. Develop and implement a training curriculum for use with child care providers. The project team will prioritize those facilities (a total of 103) that accept child care subsidy vouchers and also demonstrate the lowest quality care according to the NC star-rating system.
  4. Develop and implement a "Breastfeeding-Friendly Child Care" award system.

Outcomes:

  1. Short term:
    1. Increase awareness of the importance of breastfeeding and build support skills in Wake County child care centers.
    2. Forge functional collaborations with Wake County stakeholders.
  2. Long term:
    1. Increase breastfeeding support in at least 50 Wake County child care centers.
    2. Increase Wake County exclusive breastfeeding rates.
    3. Increase Wake County breastfeeding rates at six months and one year of age.

Cost / Term: $315,783 over three years. $103,408 in Year 1.

Start - End Date: January 2009 - December 2011