Breastfeeding Coalition Members

[mom2anangel]

I don't know if this should be in breastfeeding or here. I just wanted to get a dialogue started between breastfeeding coaliton members so we could all share ideas and possibly work on stuff together. I'm currently a member of the Chittenden County Breastfeeding Coalition, Inc. in Burlington, VT and will be moving away at the end of the month . In BUrlington we just became a non-profit, are planning World Breastfeeding Week 2008 celebrations and recently did a fundraiser showing of the Business of Being Born. I'm also a member of the Uniformed Services Breastfeeding Coaliton they are working on a forum for a big meeting in San Antonio in November. What coalitons are you a member of and what are you currently working on? I think it is important for coaltions around the nation to work together to creat a breastfeeding culture and I'd love to hear what you all are doing.

[dirtgirl]

Another from CCBC here...Hi Jen!

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[annettemarie]

I am going to move this to Lactivism since it's a focused discussion centering around breastfeeding advocacy.

[Janice in Canada]

I sit on the Breastfeeding Committee for Canada (national), the Breastfeeding Committee for Saskatchewan (provincial), and Saskatoon Breastfeeding Matters (regional).

The first 2 are non-profit corporations, the third is also, but it also a registered charity.

The last one is the most active - in regards to activities. The 2nd tries to coordinate the various regions of the province, and runs a bfing conference every 2nd or 3 rd year.
The national group adminsters BFI, and does no small time advocacy events.

So back to the regional coalition. We typically do an event for WBW. have also done educational displays at Farmer's markets, and other community events. We are also doing surveys to educate people about milk banks, and to gauge support. They just did an event to introduce the concept of "mother centres", which may seem a long way from bfing support, but we are finding we do need to pay attention to these types of societal support, to really support bfing.
http://www.mine.cc/en
this may have a better explanation of what they are:
http://www.groots.org/members/MINE.html

My days of being on these committees is winding down, but if you have questions I'd be happy to share.

Janice

[Bookworm?]

I was just coming to post about what we are doing and ask for a few suggestions. I am a member of our County Breastfeeding Task Force here in IL. We are a very small group with very limited funds. We're only about 3 yrs old. We have a banner and walk in our local parades, we have hosted a Grandmother's Breakfast to encourage support for grandmothers. Right now we are working on possibly trying to educate the HCP. We have decided to host a small luncheon of key OB"S/Ped.'s/family practice to ask them what they think the obstacles to breastfeeding in our communty are and what they think some solutions might be. We wanted to include them in getting ideas and planning so maybe they will be open to our ideas in the future. We are hoping to host a larger luncheon inviting all HCP from the community possibly with a qualified speaker or at least a presentation informing them of things like Baby Friendly, WHO code, Healthy People 2010 goals, ect. We are also planning to nominate any breastfeeding friendly work places for an award from the state task force.
Now my questions. If I dont get an answer here, I will start a seperate thread. Does anyone know of a "risks of formual" reprintable that would be appropriate for HCP? How about WHO growth charts in English measurements? I would like to have some of these available for HCP when we have our small luncheon in June. Thanks

[christyp]

I am a member of the Utah Breastfeeding Coalition, and I invite you to browse our website to learn about some of our activities. The past two years, we have had a very successful outreach project called The Breastfeeding Cafe (yes, inspired by the book). We occupied a space at the main library for the month of August, hosted classes, and made BF more visible in the community. We also held LLL meetings at that library during the month. We got a lot of press, including radio, tv and print. Taking on a month-long project is nothing to do lightly, and it took a lot of effort from many volunteers, but a smaller version could be possible, too.

The Coalition website is http://www.utahbreastfeeding.org and the Cafe page from 2007 is still up at:
http://www.utahbreastfeeding.org/cafe.php

[mom2anangel]

I love hearing from you all, it sounds like you are all very active! I have a few more questions. How many members do your coalitions have? What ideas do you have about making our culture breastfeeding friendly?

[Janice in Canada]

Originally Posted by Bookworm?

Does anyone know of a "risks of formual" reprintable that would be appropriate for HCP?

How about this?

http://www.infactcanada.ca/mall/risk...la-feeding.asp

Janice

[Bookworm?]

Thanks Janice!!

NAK but I'll try to answer the second ?'s. We have at least 1 representative from each organization involved including the county hosp, health dept., LLL, ped's office. A few others. We usually only have about 5-7 members at our meetings. The thing we are most focused on this year is HCP education. I think that is the best place to start. Baby friendly would be great and a better referal systme for mothers with challenges.

[mom2anangel]

Let's keep this active and talk about current projects, mayb we can help eachother out with easy inexpensive fundraising ideas.

[Bookworm?]

We currently have no funds. We have done a few things using parts of budgets from some of the organizations involved. We wrote for a grant (through LLL) to help with the cost of HCP education. Don't know if we got it yet though. A couple of things we have done to raise funds for LLL is to write appeal letters to local businesses and doctors and have a raffle with donated goods. There may be other grants that could be written for. United Way is one possibility. Also, some people who sell things like Barefoot Books can offer a portion of the proceeds of sales to your organization.

As an update, I have talked to several physicians who are interested in joining us to discuss obstacles and solutions in our community. We have a luncheon scheduled for June 5th. Hopefully we get a full table to discuss. I'll let you know how it goes.