Exclusive Breastfeeding Initiatives for Pregnant/Lactating Women in East Los Angeles
Background: Human milk is the most important and complete nutrition for newborns and children up to two years of age. Studies and evidence based practices have shown that exclusive breastfeeding, giving nothing by mouth to the newborn for up to six months of life, has enormous health benefits. The Healthy People 2010 goals included exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, as one key component that improves the health and well-being of women, infants, children, and families. Despite all the efforts in various hospitals, clinics, and health advocates to promote exclusive breastfeeding, there is a considerable resistance to the natural practice of breastfeeding, especially among low-income Hispanic women in the East Los Angeles Community.
Brief Description of Undertaking: The program includes a regular/scheduled monthly 1 hour Breastfeeding lectures for low-income Hispanic pregnant women who reach 28 weeks gestation. Spouses or significant partner of the pregnant women are encouraged to attend the lectures. The lectures will be conducted by the faculty in coordination with the lactation consultants in these facilities. The lecture topics will cover the following: human milk/the complete nutrition guide for babies/importance of breastfeeding; the golden hour: importance of skin to skin within 1 hour of birth; breastfeeding techniques: good latch and milk transfer/maintaining adequate milk supply; using breast pumps/ milk banking; common concerns: engorgement (prevention and treatment)/sore nipples/mastitis; and the dangers of formula feeding. The program will be implemented in 2 clinics (Sta. Rosa Medical Clinic and Alta Med medical clinic located in East Los Angeles, 2 hospitals (LA Community Hospital and East Los Angeles Doctors Hospital) and the WICS Office in the area. The evaluation will be in the form questionnaire that will be given to the participants before and after each lecture, and after the delivery of the baby to assess the participants’ knowledge, attitude, behavior and exclusive breast feeding practice. Funding for fliers/IEC materials will be provided by First 5 LA and local community/church donors as well as MMDSON students and faculty. The core measures to be evaluated will include rates of Exclusive Breastfeeding among participants (i.e., breast feeding for at least six months post-delivery).
Outcomes: There will be a significant increase in knowledge, increase in positive attitude toward exclusive breastfeeding and increase in the rate of exclusive breast feeding among participants of the program compared to historical level in the participating facilities.
Conclusions/Implications: The implementation of the culturally and linguistically appropriate breastfeeding benefit awareness programs that included measures to overcome the barriers to exclusive breastfeeding will have favorable outcomes and impact not only on the Hispanic women to practice exclusive breastfeeding but also on the health and well-being of the infants, children and the society.