Breastfeeding Information for Health Departments
Take a Leadership Role in Supporting Breastfeeding
Local public health agencies in Minnesota are uniquely poised to shape the local environment to better support and promote breastfeeding.
In fact, they have an important leadership role in supporting breastfeeding.
Local public health can both serve as a model for breastfeeding support in the workplace and work with community partners to facilitate adoption of breastfeeding friendly policies and practices.
The movement to encourage hospital maternity centers to adopt the World Health Organization’s Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding has been highly successful in increasing breastfeeding rates among the women served by these institutions. However, if we are to extend breastfeeding duration and promote exclusivity in accordance with Healthy Minnesota 2020 goals, more needs to be done to provide a breastfeeding friendly environment outside of the hospital.