Breastfeeding offers many health benefits to mothers, parents, babies, and society.
How do we support breastfeeding?
We promote comprehensive lactation services. This includes:
- Lactation support and counseling
- Education both for employers and people who want to breastfeed their child
- Health and safety information
- Breastfeeding equipment and supplies
We invest in work that:
- Equips families to achieve healthy lifestyles
- Promotes healthy weight among all children, including those with special health care needs
- Helps with the initiation and duration of breastfeeding
Are breastfeeding activities integrated into MCHB initiatives?
Yes. We integrate breastfeeding across many programs.
Many states support breastfeeding with their MCH Block Grant program. Breastfeeding is one of the Title V’s National Performance Measures (NPMs). By developing and implementing strategies to address breastfeeding initiation and duration, Title V programs are contributing to improvements in breastfeeding rates across the nation.
The Healthy Start program invests in communities to improve health outcomes before, during, and after pregnancy. Grant recipients are required to report on their progress toward achieving the 10 Healthy Start benchmark goals, including benchmarks for breastfeeding initiation and breastfeeding duration.
The Healthy Start Technical Assistance & Support Center (TASC) provides expertise and practical resources to support grantees, including tools to support breastfeeding and pumping.
Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program
Home visitors support healthy pregnancy practices, provide information on topics such as breastfeeding, and connect families to services and resources in their community like International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLC) and Certified Lactation Counselors (CLC).
Program grantees collect and report on the percent of infants (among mothers who enrolled in home visiting prenatally) who were breastfed any amount at six months of age.
These stories depict the value of breastfeeding support from home visitors:
- Keralyn’s Breastfeeding Journey (PDF - 855 KB)
- Client Breastfeeding Stories from New Jersey and Puerto Rico (PDF - 224 KB)
Bright Futures Pediatric Implementation Program
Bright Futures helps care providers and teams provide optimal health promotion and preventive services to infants, children, adolescents, young adults, and their families, including recommendations on breastfeeding evaluation, education, and support.
National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH)
This MCHB-sponsored annual survey collects information about infant feeding practices from parents and caregivers of children 0 – 5 years old, including infant feeding questions to assess initiation and duration of breastfeeding, initiation of formula feeding, and introduction of supplemental foods.
The Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Nutrition Training Program
The purpose of this program is to promote healthy nutrition for mothers, children, and families by training future and current MCH nutrition professionals and providing technical assistance to state Title V and other MCH agencies. Many Nutrition Training Program grantees offer Certified Lactation Counselor training to graduate-level trainees.
MCH nutrition trainees (PDF - 196 KB) describe their experiences becoming certified lactation counselors and supporting moms on their breastfeeding journeys.