Yay Liz!!
If the listserv had a "LIKE" button, I would be mashing it now!
Holly McSpadden, IBCLC
Holly McSpadden IBCLC
[log in to unmask]
(912) 350-8164
>>> Elizabeth Brooks <[log in to unmask]> 7/10/2012 7:26 AM >>>
"Trying to get a group started at a LI hospital and bumping into legal
concerns"
Are you even kiddin' me? What in the heck is WRONG with our world where
mothers walk into hospitals and are routinely man-handled, intimidated and
manipulated during labor, delivery and post-partum care, without a HINT of
litigative ramification ... resulting in reduced BFg initation, duration
and exclusivity rates, to say nothing of a scarred memory of birth ... and
yet we tremble in fear at the prospect of a clutch of mothers and babies
using a community room for a coupla hours a weeks to bond and learn?
What is the great risk here? Trip-and-fall on a Goldfish cracker?
Sheesh.
So: smile, smile, smile while you walk into the trembling decision-maker,
and bring with you the following:
(1) US Surg Genl Regina Benjamin's Call to Action to Support BF, which
asks ALL parts of the community -- including hopsitals -- to do ALL they
can to support BF. Allowing for members of the neighboring community to
gather in common space at the hospital meets a huge need.
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/calls/breastfeeding/calltoactiontosupportbreastfeeding.pdf
(2) Look on the hospital's web-site. I bet dollars-to-donuts that there
is something there proclaiming the facility's love of Good Health and Happy
Patients and Quality Care and yadda yadda yadda. Print that part out.
(3) Get your hands ($5 bucks) on a copy of ILCA's 12-page position paper
"Risks of Not BG" to demonstrate that BFg is critical to the health of
mothers and babies ... and the men and women those little babies will all
grow up to be. I'd say this should be on every IBCLC's bookshelf. If not
that, print out the similarly excellent downloadable 2007 seminal work by
Ip et al., thru AHRQ
http://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/evidence/pdf/brfout/brfout.pdf
(4) Download at LEAST this one from USLCA, and look through the rest of
their excellent advocacy materials, that discuss how IBCLCs help contain
healthcare costs. Yeah, yeah I know -- this is an LLL meeting -- but the
idea is to show something with dollars and cents to decision-makers, to
show that that BF support of ANY kind SAVES MONEY
http://www.ilca.org/files/USLCA/Resources/Publications/Containing_Health_Care_Costs_Help_In_Plain_Sight.pdf
(5) Take a quick peek at their list of meetings for diabetes support,
colostomy support, weight loss support, breast-and-ovarian-and-prostate
cancer support, heart disease support, addiction support, Alzheimer's
support -- you name it. Ask why there aren't legal concerns about THOSE
groups gathering on site. Act surprised and say "Why, look here!" and then
point to the cites in "Risks of Not BFg" that tie reduced life-long risks
of many of these morbidities with support for BF early in life.
(6) Remind those myopic decision-makers that GENERATIONS of health-care
decision-making is driven by the MOTHERS in a family. That means: where
does my kid get his first stitches? Where does my hubby get his apnea
test? Where does grandma go for cataract surgery? Where does Uncle Joe
get his cancer treatment? What better way to expose the institution to
YEARS of income than to be open and welcoming to young mothers and their
children?
(7) Print out and bring the CDC Report Card, and show them New York's
rather embarrassing placement. Tell them the fastest cheapest and easiest
way they can increase those 3- and 6-month BFg rates, and 3- and 6-month
*exclusivity* rates, is by sponsoring mother-to-mother community based
support http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/pdf/2011BreastfeedingReportCard.pdf
(8) Print out a few of the "Speak Up" campaign materials written by the
Joint Commission on the topic of breastfeeding.
http://www.jointcommission.org/speakup_breastfeeding/. Or maybe remind
them that the Joint Commission is now using exclusive BFg as a core measure
of perinatal care. Does the facility really want to be seen as doing the
precise opposite of what the Joint Commission has declared is a vital
*patient* right ... to speak up for and get qualified lactation care?
Yeah, yeah I know -- this is a LLL meeting. But what sort of message does
it send if they kick mothers out the door after delivery with NO
consideration of continuity of community-based care?
(9) Oh wait .... can you hear that? Isn't that the CDC telling US-based
hospitals that as a *matter of public health* they should be supporting
Baby Friendly Hospital Initiatives ... including Step 10 "Foster the
establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on
discharge from the hospital or clinic" ?
ht<http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2011/p1013_babyfriendly_hospitals.html>
tp://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2011/p1013_babyfriendly_hospitals.html<http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2011/p1013_babyfriendly_hospitals.html>
(1o) Remind them that the New York State Dept of Health wants them to be
promoting and protecting BFg:
http://www.health.ny.gov/community/pregnancy/breastfeeding/
Liz Brooks JD IBCLC FILCA
Wyndmoor, PA, USA
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