JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Brooke Army Medical Center once again earned the Texas Ten Step Program facility designation from the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The Texas Ten Step Program encourages breastfeeding as the preferred method of feeding for newborns and infants. BAMC joins a growing number of Texas birth facilities that are supporting new mothers and their decision to breastfeed.
Based on the World Health Organization/United Nations Children's Fund's "Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding," the program aims to assist birth facilities' support of breastfeeding mothers before, during, and after delivery. It encourages facilities to identify breastfeeding resources for the mother after discharge and assists in improving on national performance measures such as the Centers for Disease Control's Breastfeeding Report Card.
"We have worked very hard to earn the Texas Ten Step Program designation," said Air Force Maj. (Dr.) Nicholas Carr, medical director, Newborn Medicine at BAMC. "Our score was 92."
The goal of the Texas Ten Step Program is to increase breastfeeding initiation rates to 82 percent.
"We first received this certification in 2010 and this is our highest score yet," said Jennifer Hill, lactation consultant. "Our team from nursing and pediatrics has worked diligently to improve our staff education to provide consistent evidence-based information and support to our patients."
Texas Ten Step facilities are asked to address 85 percent of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, be designated as a Texas Mother-Friendly Worksite, evaluate their breastfeeding policies, maternity care practices and educate all healthcare staff routinely with evidence-based courses.
"Not only did BAMC institute online lactation education for clinical staff, we've added an outpatient lactation consultant in our pediatric clinic, a breastfeeding support group and are working to improve lactation rooms for mothers who are pumping," Hill said. "We continue to strive to improve services for breastfeeding families and employees here at BAMC."
"This re-designation is a capstone of all the hard work by our lactation team and the care provided by our entire Maternal-Child department on a daily basis," Carr said. "They are truly remarkable and a credit to this facility."
For more information on the Texas Ten Step Program, visit http://www.texastenstep.org.
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