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Engaging Chicago Hospitals in the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative

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Abstract

Breastfeeding is now widely recognized as a vital obesity prevention strategy and hospitals play a primary role in promoting, supporting and helping mothers to initiate and maintain breastfeeding. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) provides an evidence-based model that hospitals can use to plan and implement breastfeeding quality improvement (QI) projects. Funding under Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW), administered by the CDC, brought together key Chicago partners to provide individualized support and technical assistance with breastfeeding QI projects to the 19 maternity hospitals in Chicago. A community organizing approach was taken to mobilize hospital interest in breastfeeding QI projects, leading to successes, e.g. 12/19 (63 %) Chicago hospitals registered with Baby-Friendly USA, Inc. (BFUSA) to pursue official Baby-Friendly designation. Key factors that fostered this success included: involving all levels of hospital staff, financial incentives, and ongoing tailored technical assistance. To assist other communities in similar work, this article discusses the approach the project took to mobilize hospitals to improve breastfeeding support practices based on the BFHI, as well as successes and lessons learned.

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Abbreviations

BFHI:

Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative

BFUSA:

Baby-Friendly USA, Inc

CDPH:

Chicago Department of Public Health

CLC:

Certified Lactation Counselor

CLS:

Certified Lactation Specialist

CLOCC:

Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children

CPPW:

Communities Putting Prevention to Work

HBC:

Hospital Breastfeeding Council of Metro Chicago

HCOne:

HealthConnect One

ICAAP:

Illinois Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics

IDPH:

Illinois Department of Public Health

MDC:

Multi-disciplinary committee

QI:

Quality improvement

SPC:

Strategic planning committee

TA:

Technical assistance

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Acknowledgments

This article was supported by Healthy Places, an initiative of Healthy Chicago. Healthy Places is a collaborative effort between the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative, Cooperative Agreement Number 1U58DP002376‐01. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC), Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, 225 E. Chicago Avenue, Box 157, Chicago, IL, 60611-2605, USA

    Samantha L. Schoenfelder & Adam B. Becker

  2. HealthConnect One, 1436 West Randolph, Fourth Floor, Chicago, IL, 60607, USA

    Sadie Wych

  3. Obesity Prevention Initiatives, Illinois Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics (ICAAP), 1400 West Hubbard Street, Suite 100, Chicago, IL, 60614, USA

    Catherine A. Willows

  4. Chicago Department of Public Health, 333 South State Street, #200, Chicago, IL, 60604, USA

    Joseph Harrington

  5. Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Katherine Kaufer Christoffel

Authors
  1. Samantha L. Schoenfelder
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  2. Sadie Wych
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  3. Catherine A. Willows
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  4. Joseph Harrington
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  5. Katherine Kaufer Christoffel
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  6. Adam B. Becker
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Samantha L. Schoenfelder.

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Schoenfelder, S.L., Wych, S., Willows, C.A. et al. Engaging Chicago Hospitals in the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. Matern Child Health J 17, 1712–1717 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-012-1144-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-012-1144-2

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