Sarasota Memorial: Breast-feeding Yes, Formula No

Ever since the breast-feeding incident at a Houston Target store, feeding babies by breast has garnered plenty of comments from folks both for and against feeding in public.

Locally, has dedicated itself to a pro- breast-feeding hospital for new mothers and recently received funding to purchased donated breast milk.

In Florida, 79.5 percent of mothers have breast-fed their children at one time, according to a 2011 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention breast-feeding report card. Thirty-nine percent of Florida mothers said they breast-fed at six months. Some of these .

The national average is 74.6 percent have ever breast-fed. Oregon is the highest at 91.2 percent while Louisiana is the lowest at 48.9 percent.

At one time, formula was provided for new mothers at Sarasota Memorial, but the hospital has since done away with that this year and is advocating breast-feeding.

Actually, there’s an entire staff trained specifically in breast lactation for sake of breast-feeding education at the hospital. 

Mary O’Connor is the manager of child birth education and lactation services at the hospital. She’s certified in breast-feeding management, too in addition to having a master’s of science in nursing and being a registered nurse.

“We’re very pro- breast-feeding,” O’Connor told Patch. The hospital has committed significant money into turning its mother-baby programs into ones that advocate using mother’s milk.

“The conversation begins with education on importance of breast-feeding,” she said.

That comes in a variety of forms for support for mothers from Sarasota Memorial:

• The hospital offers beside nursing offering education in lactation management

• A free lactation management home visit at the mother’s home is offered

• A Mom Line, 917-7413, is offered for all sorts of new mother questions, including breast-feeding

•  A television channel dedicated to babies offered at the hospital , with breast-feeding programming

• Mommy Support Group each Wednesday at the hospital

• Baby Steps blog

And also, several staff members are members of Breast Feeding Advocate of Sarasota County, which also meets at the hospital, O’Connor said.

These groups and staff should help assure mothers to feed in public if a baby is hungry then, and even provides a card with Florida law on it stating a mother has a right to feed in public and private establishments, she said.

“The moms have to be comfortable themselves,” O’Connor said.

The staff’s work has turned into a 24 percent increase in mothers breast-feeding at discharge, she said. 

Traditionally hospitals had a strong tie with formula companies, as formulas would be provided to hospitals, she said, but that stopped at Sarasota Memorial when staff considered even more the advantages of breast feeding.

“Breast milk is like a medicine for the babies,” O’Connor said. “It’s been shown to decrease incidents of ear infections, respiratory infections and allergies are just a couple.”

For the mothers, there are health benefits, it’s always the right temperature, and it’s free, she added.

Focusing on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the hospital just received grant funding to purchase donated milk from the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, O’Connor said.

The milk and the moms are tested by a third party then managed by the association, she said. That system will be implemented in 2012, she added.

Despite its advances, the hospital is not yet a certified Baby Friendly Hospital, implemented by UNICEF and the World Health Organization because it hasn't applied, she said. Only four hospitals in Florida have the Baby Friendly certification — Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Cape Canaveral Hospital, Mease Countryside Hospital in Safety Harbor and Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater.

Those hospitals are recognized for their “optimal level of care for infant feeding,” according to its Web site.

Sarasota Memorial is using the Baby Friendly 10 steps as a guide to improve care, and of them, have "attained most of them," she said. The hospital hopes to get CDC funding to pursue Baby Friendly practices, O'Connor added.

"We're not officially registered with Baby Friendly organiztion but it is definitely a goal of ours in the future," she said.

This article has been updated.