After coming home with your bundle of joy, families have major decisions to make, including where to find nutrition for a newborn. Community Conversation Moderator and Lactation Consultant Melissa Naasko says that the majority of moms intend to breastfeed their baby, but for several reasons, families may not continue after a couple of months.
About 83 % of women intend to breastfeed when they leave the hospital, but most of them aren’t able to do so. And there are several reasons and we can track those things on a nationwide level. We know that there’s a big drop off at two weeks because of pain and discomfort, and we know that it just goes from there. The most important thing to remember is that while we can track these nationwide trends, We’re not going to be able to address the needs of our local community unless we find out exactly what the needs are in this specific local community. – Melissa Naasko, Moderator and Lactation Consultant, Community Breastfeeding Collaborative
On Saturday the Community Breastfeeding Collaborative will ask parents, caregivers, and family advocates to share their experiences with infant nutrition, challenges finding formula or resources for moms breastfeeding.
A lot of people just assume that bottle feeding is easier. And if nothing has come out of the very recent contaminated formula story is that formula is not always the best option for people. And it does run a lot of risk. And when you run out of formula, you run out of formula and that’s a frightening proposition to be in. So we know that by improving support among the community in terms of spouses, friends, families, employers, and educators we can improve breastfeeding rates for everyone, which supports a strong copper country because families that have secure feeding methods for their babies, especially breastfeeding, have lower rates of ear infection, lower rates of infant diarrhea. And when we have those lower rates and healthier babies, that means that there are fewer missed days at work. That means there are fewer missed days of school. And that means that there is a lot less time spent in doctor’s offices. – Melissa Naasko, Moderator and Lactation Consultant, Community Breastfeeding Collaborative
Both community conversations with the collaborative will start by inducing advocates and helping get people talking.
A second really important part of that is going to be the rollout of this online support system that we’re going to look to financial support so that people can get subscriptions to online support. And then also, again, we need to know if somebody is out there. Doing great things and we can go ahead and refer to them. And we can go ahead and put energy towards whatever successful program that they’re running. For instance, out of our meetings, one of the things that we learned is that there is a great peer-to-peer support group that is developing and growing and probably needs just a little bit more support out of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, which means that We have learned about good systems that are out there and they’re great peer support model. And now we can go ahead and support those people in the great work that they’re doing. – Melissa Naasko, Moderator and Lactation Consultant, Community Breastfeeding Collaborative
Naasko adds a major huddle for the community starts with knowing what resources exist right now, and what ways those programs could improve to better support young families and early child development. The first session on Saturday will start at 9:30 am in Hancock. A second session on May 10th will take place in Baraga.
Saturday, May 3, 2025, 9:30 – 11:30 am
Keweenaw Community Foundation Office – Hancock Community Hub 3rd Floor, 417 Quincy St.,
Hancock
9:30 AM – Doors Open
10:00–11:00 AM – Listening Session
11:00–11:30 AM – Community Connection and Conversation
Saturday, May 10, 2025, 11:00 – 1:00 pm
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Library – 409 S. Superior Rd., Baraga
11:00 AM – Doors Open
11:30 AM–12:30 PM – Listening Session
12:30–1:00 PM – Community Connection and Conversation
Can’t attend in person? Community members can still participate by completing a brief anonymous survey here.
