Lactation Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Keeping Our Distance but Remaining Connected

Objective: The Center for Perinatal Education and Lactation at NYU Langone Hospitals, in one of the initial epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, due to state and local mandates, had to abruptly cancel all in-person educational sessions and support groups Determining how to best provide prenatal and postnatal breastfeeding support became a major challenge and we had to expediently identify innovative avenues to continue to provide guidance and support for our expectant and new families Discussion: This article discusses how the NYU Langone Hospitals Lactation Department creatively revised the approach to prenatal and post discharge breastfeeding support by implementing a telehealth format which commenced in March of 2020 and by expanding post discharge telephone support We were able to successfully transition rapidly into providing lactation education and post discharge via a virtual framework during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic and we increased our telephone support for vulnerable dyads Conclusion: A virtual technology format is a viable alternative means of providing lactation education and supporting optimal infant feeding within the context of the COVOD-19 pandemic Virtual platforms could reasonably become the permanent way of delivering lactation guidance and support for the foreseeable future © Copyright 2021 United States Lactation Consulting Association