Breastfeeding Education & Support
Breastfeeding is the optimal method of infant feeding and nurturing. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy statement “Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk” cites research indicating that breastfeeding provides health, nutritional, immunologic, developmental, psychological, social, economic, and environmental advantages unmatched by other feeding options. Human milk is recommended as the preferred feeding for all infants, including premature and sick newborns, with rare exceptions, for at least the first year of life, and longer as mutually desired by mother and child. Breastfeeding also benefits women, reducing the risk of premenopausal breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
Breastfeeding education and support services are:
- The provision of anticipatory guidance and support in order to prevent breastfeeding problems and to address barriers to breastfeeding, and
- Those services provided to postpartum women to increase the duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding and to enable them to overcome any perceived breastfeeding problems
Our curriculum includes:
18-20 Hour Breastfeeding Educator Certification
This 18-hour course fulfills the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recommendations for health care professionals. It complies with the World Health Organization (WHO) International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes. The competencies of a Breastfeeding Support Educator includes:
- Knowledge of principles of normal breastfeeding
- Knowledge of barriers to breastfeeding and ability to address them
- Ability to provide assessment of commonly recurring short-term problems or complications
- Knowledge and ability to give mothers breastfeeding information based on current breastfeeding research.
*HSCMD offers this course only to staff employed as Healthy Start Home Visitors in Miami-Dade County.
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