2018 University of Maryland Pediatrics

Employer’s Perspective:

Working in an academic inner-city General Pediatrics outpatient practice, we all felt the desire to improve our care and support of breastfeeding mothers and to help model appropriate practice for our residents and medical students. Being offsite from our hospital’s nursery, we found it more challenging to arrange for outpatient follow up with lactation support and often found mothers choosing to transition to exclusive formula feeding soon after nursery discharge. In an effort to improve their resources, we teamed with the hospital lactation consultant service to offer a combined clinic, which allowed for medical follow up and management for weight concerns, as well as the time and availability on site of our lactation consultant to work further with mothers on ongoing issues. Residents have the opportunity to participate during their elective time, and medical students are able to observe this model of breastfeeding medicine in practice. Families have easier access to the help and support they need, and we have already had many success stories of mothers sticking with it through the many challenges in an early nursing relationship!