Communities Supporting Breastfeeding (CSB) is a designation recognizing communities that provide multifaceted breastfeeding support across several sectors: businesses, employers, hospitals, child care providers, and peer support. The CSB program awards a designation to Kansas communities that support breastfeeding mothers and babies through a multifaceted approach across sectors using existing statewide programs that address barriers to breastfeeding. Alone, each program can provide a life-line of support in one area of a mother’s life; when woven together they create a net of support through which no mother and baby will fall.

The "Community Supporting Breastfeeding” designation criteria can apply to either a city or a county and includes: a local breastfeeding coalition; peer support group(s) such as La Leche League or a similar mother-to-mother group; at least one community hospital enrolled in High 5 for Mom & Baby or Baby Friendly Hospital USA; one business for every 1,000 community citizens or 25 businesses (whichever is lesser) participating in the “Breastfeeding Welcome Here” program; one business for every 5,000 community citizens or 10 businesses (whichever is lesser) having received a “Breastfeeding Employee Support Award”; and a minimum of 20 child care providers in the community having completed the KBC’s “How to Support the Breastfeeding Mother and Family” course.

The purpose of the Community Supporting Breastfeeding (CSB) designation program is to create a culture of breastfeeding support in communities, ultimately increasing breastfeeding initiation and duration rates and the health and well-being of families.

The CSB program’s immediate goals are to increase positive perceptions toward breastfeeding, increase the availability of breastfeeding resources, and reduce barriers experienced in the community by women of child-bearing age. The long-term goal of the project is to increase exclusive breastfeeding rates through a sustainable model of cross-sector support for breastfeeding.

The project also effectively addresses the racial and socioeconomic disparities in breastfeeding rates. The Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition’s collective impact approach supports efforts of those serving African-American and lower income women. As a result of this project, these organizations receive the support they need to increase their impact when they become aligned with other, larger organizations working toward similar goals, creating a synergy across groups working on breastfeeding support.

Based on results from our evaluation, along with improved exclusive breastfeeding rates in the majority of the communities that could be associated with the CSB criteria, we believe the CSB program is impactful.

A cross-sectional study was designed using self-reported surveys to evaluate mothers’ perceptions of the availability of breastfeeding resources and breastfeeding barriers in the six pilot communities associated with the Communities Supporting Breastfeeding (CSB) program. To accomplish this study’s objective, surveys were administered to women of child-bearing age in each of the six pilot communities. Through local meetings, the Local Community Coordinator (LCC) contacted potential study participants to discuss survey participation. Participants completed the survey within six months of implementation of the CSB program. Data were collected between January and March 2015. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board, University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita.
A total of 115 mothers completed the survey. A summary of key findings includes:

-Majority of respondents believed local breastfeeding leadership (90.1%), peer support (92.6%), and hospital support (97.4%) provided adequate breastfeeding support in the community
-Majority of respondents indicated that they know of or would prefer to breastfeed at a business that participates in the Breastfeeding Welcome Here program (88.4%)
-Mothers reported a lack of: designated public breastfeeding space; knowledge that breastfeeding is natural; and designated space and sufficient time to express breast milk in the workplace
-Percent change in exclusive breastfeeding by 2.4%, 9.4%, 7.0%, 5.2%, and 3.3% in selected communities.