Baby Friendly Hospital Births and Lactation Consultants Are Associated with State-Level Breastfeeding Rates

BackgroundBreastfeeding has short and long term protective health implications for both the mother and the child. The breastfeeding rates in the US have not yet met the Healthy People 2020 goals. An annual breastfeeding report card by the CDC identifies five state-level breastfeeding indicator. It also gives state-level summary measures for practices that support breast feeding. We used the 2014 CDC breastfeeding report card to help us understand which state-level support indicators were associated with measures of breastfeeding. MethodsThe breastfeeding outcomes were: percent ever breastfed, percent breastfed for 6 and 12 months, and percent that exclusively breastfed for 3 and 6 months. The support variables were: an overall score of maternity care practices and policies at a birth facility, La Leche leaders per 1000 live births, International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLC) per 1000 live births, the proportion of state births in baby friendly facilities and percent of infants given formul...