Four Corners Breastfeeding Tak Force

                                           2007 CHAPTER UPDATE

                   Breastfeeding support sevices at San Juan Regional medical Center
• As of May 1, 2007, San Juan Regional Medical Center joined the growing number of
   "BAG-FREE" hospitals in New Mexico! They no longer accept or distribute infant formula
   company samples to patients.
   (This has been a terrific "bonus" accomplishment, as it was not really one of our target goals for this
    year!)

• In April of 2007, "The Mothers' Room" was opened on the
3rd floor of the main hospital building. A Medela Symphony
hospital-grade breast pump and trolley, two rocking chairs, a
Medela Baby Scale and miscellaneous furnishings were
purchased with grant funding from the State Task Force.
A private, comfortable space for nursing mothers in an unused
patient room has been created.. Staff is able to purchase the
individual pump accessory kits from the hospital at cost. There is
a separate restroom in the Mothers' Room and a break room
   next door with a refrigerator for storage of milk and a sink and
a microwave for clean-up.
As of November 1, 2007, there are 10 employees registered and
using the room on a regular basis to   pump during their work shift.
The Mothers' Room is also used for out-patient lactation visits for follow-up with mothers and their
infants after discharge post-partum. Currently the program averages 3-4 outpatient visits per week by
   referral from the newborn healthcare providers or self-referral by the mothers.

Community Education Packets for
26 Healthcare Providers, 30 Childcare Providers
and 15 other Community Health Workers

•The Four Corners chapter achieved partial success with this objective. Thirty breastfeeding resource
folders and 10 copies of Hale's Medications and Mother's Milk book were purchased by grant funding
and presented to newborn health care providers in San Juan County. The original target list of 26
pediatricians and family practice doctors in Farmington grew to include two Urgent Care clinics, the WIC
office, three locations in Shiprock at Northern Navajo Medical Center, and the Community Health Clinic in
Dulce, NM.
We fell short of our goal to reach childcare providers, school nurses and other home visitation programs
this year, primarily due to time limitations. That outreach will remain a goal for this task force chapter for
the coming year.

Breastfeeding Resource Guide Updates

• By the end of October 2007, we still had over 1,000 Breastfeeding Resource Guides left-over from
   printing in 2006. The Task Force opted to print an insert covering updates to the guide and will continue
   distributing these until the current supply is used up. Funds allotted for the printing of the guide will be
   held until needed for this purpose.

   We will continue to provide these guides through local Task Force members, physician offices,
   community clinics and hospitals.

Participation in Community Events

The theme chosen by theTask Force for public promotion this year focused on working and
breastfeeding issues. Funding from this grant was used to purchase education materials, water bottles and a display board for use at our booth.

The Four Corners Breastfeeding Task Force was represented by a booth
at 4 community events:
                                        •6/2/07 Kidfest
                                        •6/13/07 San Juan County Employee Health Fair
                                        •8/13-18/2007 San Juan County Fair (6 days)
                                        •10/25/07 City of Farmington Employee Health Fair

Over 1, 400 hand-outs, pamphlets, Breastfeeding Resource Guides, and other promotional materials were distributed to community members at these events. At the county fair, volunteers manned a booth with educational information and 2 private breastfeeding rooms with couches and private restrooms. Water bottles with the task force logo were handed out to pregnant and nursing mothers, filled with water donated by Cascade Bottled Water Co; a big hit in the August heat!

As an additional activity, the task force hosted a photo contest with the intention of forwarding submissions to the state breastfeeding calendar for next year. There were no entries in the contest. The hospital hosted their own photo contest at the same time, (for World Breastfeeding Week) and received complaints about the inappropriateness of the display board with sample pictures from previous years' calendars, and no entries in the contest.

Obviously, continued education efforts are needed as our community is still quite conservative when it comes to public images of breastfeeding!

The Four Corners Breastfeeding Task Force Chapter extends our sincere appreciation to the New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force for providing the funding to help us realize these goals in 2007.