Promising Practice

Birth and Beyond California: Hospital Breastfeeding Quality Improvement and Staff Training Demonstration Project

State/Jurisdiction: California
Setting: Clinical
Population: Medical & Public Health Professionals
Topic Area: Workforce Development
NPMs:

This practice is no longer being implemented.  The Birth and Beyond California program provides women with the support and resources necessary to initiate and maintain exclusive breastfeeding starting at birth. The program provides effective, evidence-based breastfeeding support modeled after the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative and Loma Linda University’s Perinatal Services Network’s Birth and Beyond Project. The program aims to make it possible for women to initiate breastfeeding while in the hospital and exclusively breastfeed during the entire hospital stay and after discharge. The program conducts hospital administrator trainings, hospital staff trainings, train-the-trainer workshops, and organizes and facilitates hospital breastfeeding network group meetings. Health care providers in community hospitals benefit from this program by having access to up-to-date, evidence-based information and technical assistance on ways to offer and measure outcomes related to breastfeeding support. In addition, breastfeeding leads to improved maternal-child bonding, which contributes to optimal early child-development. Birth and Beyond California is being piloted in areas with the lowest exclusive breastfeeding rates.


Back to Database

Implementation Handout



CONTACT INFORMATION
California Department of Public Health
Suzanne Haydu
Suzanne.Haydu@cdph.ca.gov

Practice Website