One-Day HUG Your Baby Workshop in New Mexico

A number of variables impact a woman's decision to discontinue breastfeeding: lack of support, breastfeeding pain, worry about milk supply, or challenges with returning to work. In addition to these problems, lactation specialists also notice that mothers add formula or give up breastfeeding when they misinterpret a baby's normal behavior as a breastfeeding problem. Does that crying two-week-old need more calories? Does the "restless" sleep of a one-month-old mean the baby needs cereal in a bottle at night? Is the distracted four-month-old trying to wean?

Elsa Quintana, the New Mexico Breastfeeding Coordinator, believed that HUG Your Baby’s information and resources offer a missing piece of the puzzle to extend breastfeeding duration in NM communities. 140 New Mexico peer counselors completed HUG's "Roadmap to Breastfeeding Success" online course. After completing this two-hour course, these professionals demonstrated increased knowledge of how child development impacts breastfeeding; they expressed a stronger intention to teach parents about normal child behavior, and they reported greater confidence to do so. [Tedder, J. & Quintana, E. (2018). Clinical Lactation, 9(3), 108-118.]

In August (2019) Elsa and NM Deputy WIC Director, Kerry Clavio, invited HUG Your Baby to bring an all-day Training to Albuquerque. HUG Trainers Camille Smith, PhD (formerly from the CDC); Gale Touger, FNP (IBCLC, and original HUG contributor), and Vonda Gates (doula/childbirth educator and former ICEA board member) joined me for a creative, inspiring day of HUGs! We reviewed all components of HUG Your Baby, taught HUG Strategies for the first time, and offered multiple interactive exercises to enhance learning.

The two one-minute Youtube videos at the link below capture the essence of this training and how NM WIC hopes to incorporate HUG Your Baby into their future work.

NM Breastfeeding Coordinator Speaks Up

Breastfeeding Peer Counselors Share their Thoughts

Here’s what participants had to say about the workshop:

98-100% of participants “Strongly Agreed” or “Agreed” with the statements:

1.    The workshop information was helpful and relevant to my work.

2.    The workshop training was easy to understand.

3.    The workshop training provided content that I can apply immediately in my work.

4.    The workshop information was evidence-based.

5.    The workshop videos helped me understand this information.

6.    The workshop table exercises helped me understand this information.

7.    I would recommend this workshop to others.

We look forward to contacting WIC organizations in other states about bringing HUG Your Baby to their professionals and the families they serve!

New Research Confirms Benefit of HUG Your Baby with WIC Latina Mothers

LaKasha White, DNP and Jan Tedder, BSN, FNP, IBCLC with HUG Your Baby

Congratulations to LaKasher White who just completed the Doctors of Nursing Practice at UNC Chapel Hill. She worked to bring HUG Your Baby to peer counselors and Latina mothers in a North Carolina Public Health Department. LaKasha shared this important work at a poster presentation right before graduation. Though we expect the entirety of her work to soon be published in a peer-reviewed journal, below is a brief description of her efforts.

Although breastfeeding initiation has improved in the United States, disparities continue among minority populations such as Latina women (CDC, 2016). Misperceptions of normal infant behaviors may decrease exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life. Though Latina women are more likely than other minority populations to start breastfeeding, “Los Dos,” the use of both breast and formula feeding, is a common practice.

Research confirms that Latinas worry about insufficient breastmilk and practice “Los Dos” in response to infant crying, nipple trauma, and concerns about infant weight. The purposes of Ms. White’s DNP Quality Improvement project were: 1) to improve exclusive breastfeeding rates among Latina women using strategies and resources from HUG your Baby’s evidence-based program, “The Roadmap to Breastfeeding Success”; 2) to evaluate the impact of WIC peer counselors’ use of this HUG Your Baby program in prenatal teaching.

Three WIC peer counselors from a public health setting completed the two-hour online course, “The Roadmap to BreastfeedingSuccess,” and participated in a two-hour follow-up workshop.  They then used these HUG resources and strategies with Latina women during the prenatal and postpartum period. All peer counselors were female, from diverse cultures (Black, White, Hispanic), and had work experience in this capacity ranging from two months to eleven years. 

After eight months, the peer counselors demonstrated increased knowledge and skills to teach parents, described “The Roadmap” as a helpful tool, and noted improved exclusive breastfeeding duration.  (Research details are pending publication.)