Riverview Hospital Celebrates World Breastfeeding Week

Noblesville—Riverview Hospital is proud to support World Breastfeeding Week, Aug. 1-7, 2013. This year’s theme is “Breastfeeding Support: Close to Mothers,” which highlights the importance of providing support to breastfeeding families.

“Breastfeeding means more than just supplying babies with valuable nutrition. It also allows moms and babies to have the direct skin-to-skin contact that is so important in an infant’s development,” said Sarah Long, IBCLC, Lactation Consultant at Riverview Hospital. “Because breastfeeding is such a personal matter, raising awareness for this topic and providing access to private meetings with a lactation consultant are important initiatives we support at Riverview Hospital.”

In effort to encourage breastfeeding, Riverview Hospital is launching a postpartum lactation visit program. This ongoing program will be launched in August to help facilitate appointments for new moms with a lactation consultant. It will also help educate women on the importance of breastfeeding and support them during that vital first week—which is known to be the most stressful, yet most important, in establishing breastfeeding.

“As a lactation consultant, I see many moms giving up on breastfeeding in the first couple of weeks, due to the lack of support in the community,” stated Long. “Our goal is to support moms so they can establish a healthy breastfeeding routine, and make sure their baby receives proper nutrition.”

To further support breastfeeding at Riverview, Long has been engaged with the Breastfeeding Coalition of Hamilton County and acts as a liaison between the coalition and the hospital. Formed in 2009, Breastfeeding Coalition of Hamilton County seeks to increase the number of mothers successfully breastfeeding by creating a supportive culture.

In addition, Riverview offers a breastfeeding class and a breastfeeding support group. To register, visit riverview.org or call 317.776.7247. For questions or appointments with a lactation consultant, please call the breastfeeding support line at 317.776.7202.