Mom 2 Mom Breastfeeding Support

MothertheMother · 01-06-2007, 10:03 PM

I am very excited to share a new developement about to begin here at Ft. Benning, GA. Apparently, the Mom 2 Mom Breastfeeding Support was developed by Community Health for the military (maybe just Army...not sure yet) to implement easily at all of their installations. Basically it works by women who have had experience breastfeeding volunteering to be a "buddy" to new mom wanting to breastfeed. As I understand it all of the materials and trainings etc are set up...all we have to do is get volunteers and funding (ok, so many it won't be as easy as it sounds but I have faith). I have no concerns about getting volunteers. We already have 6 for the pilot with hopes of having about 30 in a few months. The criteria for volunteers is you must have had a succesful breastfeeding relationship for at least 3 months and would recommend breastfeeding to a friend. The volunteers will be assigned a new mom and will contact her hopefully before she delivers. I don't have all of the specs yet as we are having our first meeting about it on Wed but it sounds like a great program. Basically there should be at least phone support a few times a week in the first few weeks tapering off over time. Home visits are up to the volunteer and the mom and referrals are obviously given if it is outside the scope. I am very excited to be a part of this and I hope some of you other military spouses will look into starting one in your area (or volunteering if it is already there). Check out the site for Mom 2 Mom

DL · 01-06-2007, 10:41 PM

This sounds terrific, Christy!

with this! I would have loved to have had a group like this when I was a new, breastfeeding military mom.

motherstouchdoula · 01-06-2007, 10:51 PM

Sounds almost how LLL got started. "Change the world one breast at a time".
What a wonderful idea!!

MothertheMother · 01-06-2007, 11:25 PM

from what I understand it is supposed to be supported by local LLL. In other words the volunteers should have referral support and work together with LLL. I only read through it briefly but that is what I took from it.
The neatest thing to me is in theory it should be self supporting. In other words, once a mom has been breastfeeding for 3 months she'd then be eligible to be a volunteer. I'd like to think that a number of women would appreciate the support enough to volunteer it as well.

MothertheMother · 01-31-2007, 11:46 PM

as of this afternoon we've now had two days of training. Day one was hospital stuff (we will actually have privilages at the hospital!!!) and today was the breastfeeding info/counseling info training. We have one more training session to do in a couple of weeks through Red Cross. To be able to volunteer inside the hospital we have to be Red Cross volunteers. I am so excited to be able to be involved in this program. We are only starting with a pilot group of 5 volunteers with hopes of having the next round of volunteers train as a group of 30! Wish us luck. I may be on here begging for advice!

douladot · 02-01-2007, 06:07 AM

Christy -- this all sounds fantastic! Keep us up to date on the progress!

MothertheMother · 03-28-2007, 10:17 AM

check out the display board I made for our group

douladot · 03-28-2007, 10:32 AM

Christy - it is BEAUTIFUL!! Great Job!

jesscardona · 03-28-2007, 10:35 AM

That is nice Christy

Jilian · 03-28-2007, 10:40 AM

Great work! I love the picture!

CvilleDoula · 03-28-2007, 11:10 AM

Nice job!!!

Man, display boards bring back memories. I haven't made one since elementary school. Good times...good times lol

I checked out the website too. I think it's wonderful! As far as I know, there isn't anything like that out here. VIrginia is a HUGE military state too. We have the largest Navy base in the US (plus there's army, and marine bases here as well).

jessa_bee · 03-28-2007, 12:21 PM

Go Christy! -- this all looks wonderful

ScootchsMom · 03-28-2007, 12:32 PM

That sounds like a great group! Good luck!

Liz

scarborogal · 03-28-2007, 03:19 PM

Your board is beautiful. Clean and classic. I love it! It's true, you are very talented.

K.

MothertheMother · 03-28-2007, 04:59 PM

this is actually the first time I have ever made a board like this. I am very pleased with the outcome. I had an idea of where I wanted things to go when I started but didn't have a clear picture in my head of what it would look like when I was done. Thank you all for the kudos! It's so nice to have the feedback. DH said it looks nice but it just isn't the same lol