by Amy Spangler
September 06, 2008

San Joaquin County is the first of California’s 58 counties where all of the hospitals in the county with birth facilities (a total of six) have agreed to work together to improve breastfeeding rates. While it’s hard to imagine hospitals cooperating instead of competing, the best part is that moms and babies are the beneficiaries of this amazing collaboration.

The countywide initiative is funded by a $150,000, two-year grant from First 5 San Joaquin, a non-profit organization that works in partnership with agencies and organizations to develop programs benefiting children ages 0 to 5 years. The goal will be to implement 10 Model Hospital Policies fashioned after the WHO-UNICEF Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and developed by the California Department of Public Health.

Mary Woelfel, MPH, IBCLC, project coordinator was quoted by the Stockton Record as saying, “When I talk with others outside the county, they are amazed that every one of our hospitals is participating in this project.”

The San Joaquin County initiative was prompted by a report released by the University of California at Davis Human Lactation Center and the California WIC Association. Jane Heinig, PhD, IBCLC and colleagues found significant differences in breastfeeding rates within the state, with 9 of the 15 lowest scoring hospitals located in Los Angeles County. Typically, the hospitals with the lowest rates were those serving low-income and minority women.

Karen Farley, Program Manager for the California WIC Association, was quoted in a press release as saying, “Breastfeeding should not depend on where you are born.”

“Where hospitals are resistant to change, exclusive breastfeeding rates remain stagnant,” added Farley.

San Francisco General is proof that policies make a difference. According to the 2008 California Breastfeeding Report, even though nearly all of the 1,266 mothers giving birth there in 2007 were classified as low-income, the hospital’s exclusive breastfeeding rate was nearly 90 percent.

Congratulations to San Joaquin County and the State of California for putting moms and babies first!