The Oklahoma Breastfeeding Resource Center at the OU Health Sciences Center will dole $750,000 in grant funding over three years to ten rural hospitals in Oklahoma, which will receive free breastfeeding support training and resources.
The center’s Director Becky Mannel said it fit the criteria for a discovery grant under the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, which can be used to enhance the provision of health care services and programs for children.
“It's going to almost double our funding, which we're very excited about,” Mannel said.
Oklahoma’s rural communities particularly lack access to this form of care. Over half of the state's counties are maternity care deserts, which are predominantly rural areas without birthing facilities and providers.
“That doesn't mean there aren't childbearing women, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. So access to care and timely access is a challenge. … So we're excited to be able to improve access to care but also more resources for our rural birthing hospitals,” Mannel said.
Those resources include free training for hospitals’ nursing and physician staff, early access to the center’s breastfeeding hotline to help with prenatal education, free telehealth lactation sessions after a baby is born and donor milk.
Mannel said the grant's main component is training. Some of it is provided online to support the busy schedules of providers, while other training will take place in the recipients’ facilities.
The goal is to help them work toward a baby-friendly designation, which recognizes maternity facilities offering care that emphasizes evidence-based care. Those include the ten steps to successful breastfeeding, which focus on education, support and mother-baby bonding.
Mannel said the grant will help the center provide training that will give nurses the confidence and skills to support their patients.
“Once they get a lot of these practices in place, then they see that the babies are nursing better. You'll even have the cleaning lady say, ‘I don't hear as many crying babies anymore,’ because the babies are in the room with their mother, or they’re skin to skin with dad,” Mannel said.
Breastfeeding can help protect babies against some short- and long-term illnesses. Breastfeeding can also help babies regulate their food intake more effectively, putting them at a lower risk for obesity.
In Oklahoma, 13% of children ages two to four who are WIC participants are obese. Mannel said she’s excited to work with hospitals to improve those outcomes.
The grant comes during National Breastfeeding Month, with this month’s theme being “Nourish, Sustain, Thrive.” The month highlights the importance of breastfeeding and its impact on infant health.
Celebrations include:
• Indigenous Milk Medicine Week: Aug. 8-14
• Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Week: Aug. 15-21
• Black Breastfeeding Week: Aug. 25-31
• Workplace Lactation Week: Sept. 1-7
• Semana de La Lactancia Latina: Sept. 5-11
Heidi Russell, the executive director of the Coalition of Oklahoma Breastfeeding Advocates, said it’s important to remember Oklahoma’s robust laws surrounding breastfeeding, including paid and protected break time for public school teachers and employees, and state agency employees to pump. There are also federal protections available in the PUMP Act.
Mannel said supports like the coalition and grant funding from TSET help reduce the challenges mothers face in caring for their babies.
She said Oklahoma has various resources for mothers and hopes the grant funding will help them expand these services and generate additional funding to impact more women’s lives.
StateImpact Oklahoma is a partnership of Oklahoma’s public radio stations which relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online.
