Minnesota Effort Looks to Boost Breastfeeding Support

(Adobe Stock via Minnesota News Connection)

(By Mike Moen. Minnesota News Connection ) – New mothers in Minnesota often get started right away on breastfeeding, with support from hospitals and birthing centers but when they get home with their newborns, challenges can emerge in maintaining the momentum. A new effort in a handful of clinics is helping to change it.

The American Heart Association and the Minneapolis Health Department have launched a program to create a more supportive environment for lactation. So far, it is being carried out in three health clinics for patients and clinic employees in need of private spaces, education and other tools to reach their infant feeding goals.

Kevalin Aulandez, senior public health specialist for the Minneapolis Health Department, said health equity is at the center of the partnership.

“In Minnesota and Minneapolis, we do see really astonishingly large racial health disparities around maternal mortality and infant mortality,” Aulandez pointed out. “Breastfeeding can help decrease those disparities.”