VCU Medical Center’s Women’s Health Program Hosts International Breastfeeding Campaign

By Cheryle Rodriguez

Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center’s Women’s Health program will serve as one of the hosts of “The Big Latch On,” an international campaign in which hundreds of local women will breastfeed their babies at the Bell Tower on Capitol Square, joining thousands of women gathered at registered locations throughout the world doing the same.

“The Big Latch On” will be held on Saturday, Aug. 4, at 10:30 a.m. Registration begins at 9:45 a.m. The event, which is part of World Breastfeeding Month, is designed to increase awareness about the benefits of breastmilk and breastfeeding. VCU is partnering with The Richmond Healthy Start, Bon Secours Richmond Health System and HCA Healthcare to host the event.

Free parking is provided at St Paul's Church, the gravel lot at 9th and Broad streets, the corner of 11th and Broad streets and 900 E. Marshall St. under the City Department of Social Services Building (which is also the rain parking location).   

The activity coincides with the hospital’s recent selection as one of 90 hospitals nationwide that will participate in Best Fed Beginnings, a national program that involves hospital health care employees encouraging breastfeeding.

“Although breastfeeding is one of the most effective preventive health measures for infants and mothers, half of U.S.-born babies are given formula within the first week, and by nine months, only 31 percent of babies are breastfeeding at all,” said Valerie Coleman, coordinator of family life education and lactation services at VCU.

VCU Medical Center is one of 90 hospitals selected from more than 200 applicants submitted to the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality (NICHQ).  NICHQ is leading the effort through a cooperative funding agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“We are delighted to have been chosen to participate in this important effort and to have the opportunity to improve our maternity care services to better support breastfeeding,” said Jeniece Roane, nursing director of women’s and children’s health at VCU. “We are committed to implementing evidence-based care through the ‘Baby-Friendly’ designation process. This will ensure that mothers delivering in our facility who intend to breastfeed are fully supported.”

The hospitals selected will work together on a 22-month learning collaborative, using proven quality improvement methods to transform their maternity care services in pursuit of “Baby-Friendly” designation.  The steps required by hospitals selected are:

Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff. Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy. Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding. Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth. Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are separated from their infants. Give breastfeeding infants no food or drink other than breastmilk, unless medically indicated. Practice “rooming in”-- allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day. Encourage breastfeeding on demand. Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants. Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic

“We know that Baby-Friendly hospitals provide the best care to help mothers and babies succeed at breastfeeding, yet less than 6 percent of babies in this country are born in these facilities,” said Laurence Grummer-Strawn, nutrition branch chief of the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity. “We need to help hospitals improve their maternity care to better support breastfeeding. This project takes steps to do that, and it offers real solutions to improve the health of mothers and babies.”

Note: In case of rain, the Aug. 4 breastfeeding event will be moved to House Room 3 in the Virginia State Capitol.