Communities Transforming Maternal & Child Health
Hearing the same message at every stage of care helps families feel confident and prepared for baby’s birth and their breastfeeding journey.
Check out tips birthing centers can use todayUnprepared families are less likely to start and continue breastfeeding, or experience it’s health benefits.
Organizations that see families early and throughout pregnancy often don’t know what maternity care practices are available at their local birthing centers. Families enter the birthing center to deliver not knowing what to expect.
Conflicting, inaccurate, or just too many… inconsistent messages can be overwhelming. Information shared with families about birth and breastfeeding varies greatly within and across organizations, leaving families feeling unsure about what to do.
There are many local resources — like WIC and home visiting programs — that can help prepare families prenatally for birth, and support them with breastfeeding after discharge. But not everyone knows about these resources. This leads to missed referral opportunities and underutilized services.
Many hospital staff only refer families they think will qualify to WIC services.1
Instead, telling all families about breastfeeding support resources can help remove conscious and unconscious bias
from referral-making decisions. This will help close the gap on racial disparities in birth and breastfeeding outcomes.
Through this focus area, Coffective supports organizations creating consistent birth and breastfeeding messaging across their communities, ensuring families are more likely to start and continue breastfeeding as well as experience improved health outcomes.
Improve families’ preparedness for the birth and breastfeeding experience.
Amplify the role of community agencies — like WIC and home visiting programs — in preparing families.
Increase breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity, and continuation for all families.
Work to eliminate racial disparities in birth and breastfeeding outcomes.
Coffective supports states, communities, and organizations in choosing solutions — bundled tools, training, and activities — for establishing consistent messaging based on shared priorities and communities’ needs.
Coffective offers a full set of materials that can help prepare families for their birth and breastfeeding journeys.
Our co-created materials are designed to be used in a wide range of settings, including hospitals, prenatal clinics, and WIC agencies. This helps ensure families hear a consistent message at every stage.
View all training and toolsHospital, prenatal clinic, WIC, and other community organization staff, as well as healthcare providers in all settings… Coffective has training for everyone.
Help community and clinical care teams deliver consistent messaging and services by educating them evidence-based maternity care practices.
View all training and tools
Community Match is an online dashboard that helps local organizations coordinate with other organizations.
Here are a few free activities and tools you can use today to help establish consistent birth and breastfeeding messaging across your community:
Do you know what materials your organization uses to promote breastfeeding? Gather your materials and sort into three categories: keep, update, and retire. Look for any gaps.
Before you update or create new materials, identify other birth and breastfeeding support organizations in your community. Can you share resources and coordinate your messaging?
Put yourself in a family’s shoes. Consider moments in their experience that can be used to share your updated, coordinated materials (i.e. time spent in waiting or exam rooms).
Your state government may also offer free birth and breastfeeding education resources. Look outside your community to find more materials that could be used across organizations.
Educates and motivates families on maternity care practices that support breastfeeding.
Helps families build a support team, learn what to expect, and share their wishes for their birth experience.
Learn about local organizations’ services and find ways to coordinate materials with this sample agenda.
Coffective has worked with the following states on using consistent messaging to prepare families for their birth and breastfeeding journeys. Strategies and tools within this focus area were chosen based on each state’s shared goals and unique communities’ needs.
Keva Williams CLS
WIC Breastfeeding Community
Liasion Michigan DHHS Contractor
Coffective Michigan Hospital Staff Survey, 2016
Coffective Wisconsin Hospital Staff Survey, 2019
Coffective Kentucky Hospital Staff Survey, 2020
Find Local Resources