Those of you who attended ILCA 2006 may recall Kay Hoover's welcome spech, where she alluded to a Philadelphia-based, population-based study on IBCLCs in the hospital (for which she was the second-listed author). It has now been published -- and provides an evidence-based *epidemiologic* study showing that having IBCLCs on staff at a hospital -- even part-time -- increases the rates of BF at discharge among ALL groups of women, but particularly amongst the groups of women who were least likely to BF. The numbers are staggering. Here is one eye-popper: "Among Medicaid recipients, the odds of BF at hospital discharge were 4.13 times higher for women who delivered at a facility with an IBCLC than women who delivered at a facility without an IBCLC. Delivering at a facility with an IBCLC was associated with a three times increase in the odds of BF at hospital discharge among mothers younger than 20 years and among women who experienced a poor birth outcome." The conclusion states that it cannot identify exactly what it is that IBCLC presence does to increase BF: increased individual contact with moms? change in staff attitude or policy? But who cares? This study tells us, based on demographic data, that *IBCLCs* increase BF rates. Now, this may seem like a "Doh" study to those of us in the field, but it is important for several reasons: (1) We now have powerful statistics to show that the *IBCLC* credential has demonstrated and proven ability to increase BF rates. This study proves the value of hiring a holder of the "gold standard" credential. (2) Hospital administrators and number-crunchers are going to be wowed by these numbers. These numbers ought to knock the socks off of any hospital administrator who is concerned about the "costs" of hiring an IBCLC. "Several studies estimated that the medical costs for infants who are not BF exceed those of BF infants by approx $400 annually per infant." In other words, we can take lactation consultant promotion out of the realm of what I call "warm fuzzy mommyness," and into the cold hard realm of the bottom dollar. And that may be what is needed to enhance and promote our profession, and our IBCLC credential. Here is the Pub Med abstract: 1: J Public Health Manag Pract. 2006 November/December;12(6):578-585. Links A Comparison of Breastfeeding Rates in an Urban Birth Cohort Among Women Delivering Infants at Hospitals That Employ and Do Not Employ Lactation Consultants.Castrucci BC, Hoover KL, Lim S, Maus KC. Brian C. Castrucci, MA, Director, Family Health Research and Program Development Unit, Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin. Kathleen L. Hoover, MEd, IBCLC, is Lactation Consultant, Division of Maternal, Child and Family Health, Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Philadelphia. Suet Lim, PhD, is Acting Director, Division of Chronic Disease Prevention, Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Philadelphia. Katherine C. Maus, ACSW, LSW, is Director, Division of Maternal, Child and Family Health, Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Philadelphia. OBJECTIVE: To compare rates of breastfeeding at hospital discharge between facilities that employ and do not employ International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs). METHODS: This study used a cross-sectional design. Data from 11,525 birth certificates of Philadelphia residents who delivered in 2003 were used. Breastfeeding was assessed using a question included on the Pennsylvania birth record, "Is the infant being breastfed at discharge?" The Philadelphia Department of Public Health's lactation consultants collected information on number of hours worked annually by IBCLCs by facility. RESULTS: After adjusting for race/ethnicity, education, insurance status, age, marital status, route of delivery, birth weight, and gestational age, delivering in a hospital that employed an IBCLC was associated with a 2.28 (95% confidence interval [CI] =1.98,2.62) times increase in the odds of breastfeeding at hospital discharge. Among women receiving Medicaid, delivering at a hospital that employed IBCLCs was associated with a 4.13 (95% CI =3.22,4.80) times increase in the odds of breastfeeding at hospital discharge. CONCLUSIONS: The findings presented here identify an association between delivering at a facility that employs IBCLCs and breastfeeding at hospital discharge. As the strength of this association is not negligible, particularly for women on Medicaid, these findings may be used to encourage widespread use of IBCLCs. PMID: 17041307 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC Wyndmoor, PA, USA _________________________________________________________________ Stay in touch with old friends and meet new ones with Windows Live Spaces http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwsp0070000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://spaces.live.com/spacesapi.aspx?wx_action=create&wx_url=/friends.aspx&mkt=en-us *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET email list is powered by LISTSERV (R). There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html