County touts breast-feeding friendly childcare centers

All six of the childcare centers with infant rooms in Madison County have met the criteria to receive the Breast Feeding Friendly Childcare designation. The Healthy Start Partnership worked with the Cazenovia Children’s House, Celebrations Children’s Center in Canastota, Chenango Nursery School in Hamilton, Morrisville Children’s Center, Oneida Area Day Care, and Oneida Indian Nation Early Learning Center as part of a county-wide initiative.

To make breast feeding easier for women, the U.S. surgeon general identified 20 key actions to improve support for breast feeding.

One key action is to ensure that all child care providers accommodate the needs of breast feeding mothers and infants.

A center that is breast feeding friendly:

• Provides an atmosphere that welcomes breast feeding families

• Helps mothers continue to breast feed when they return to work or school

• Makes breast feeding resources available to parents

• Feeds infants on demand and coordinates feeding times with parent’s schedule

• Trains staff so they are able to support breast feeding

• Has a written breast feeding policy

The centers developed or updated their breast feeding policy, identified a private space for mothers to breast feed or pump, and took steps to make their centers more comforting and welcoming to breast feeding moms. The Child Care Council of Cornell Cooperative Extension trained nearly 50 staff on how to support mothers with breast feeding.

Center directors expressed how important it is to support moms in breast feeding and said they were willing to do whatever they could to make it easier for moms to continue breast feeding their babies.

Some centers have a space that is used daily while others will make accommodations when they have a mom who needs a private space.

Centers made their breast feeding room more warm, cozy, and inviting. Each center received a certificate and a window decal that reads “Breastfed Babies Welcome Here”.

For more information on breast feeding resources in Madison County, visit: www. healthymadisoncounty.org.