LITTLE ROCK, AR (News release) – Baptist Health has implemented a telehealth lactation-consulting program with the help of a grant from the Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas. Nurses at Baptist Health Medical Center-Arkadelphia can now take an iPad to the bedside of a new mother and consult with another nurse who is a certified lactation consultant on staff at Baptist Health Expressly For You.
Breastfeeding rates in Arkansas are among the lowest in the country. In “The CDC Guide to Strategies to Support Mothers and Babies,” access to professional breastfeeding support is a key strategy. International board-certified lactation consultants are healthcare professionals who specialize in the management of breastfeeding and are identified in the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention guide as effective in improving hospital maternity-care practices and breastfeeding rates.
Baptist Health Expressly for You has a breastfeeding warmline that serves as a telephone support line for breastfeeding mothers all over the state. The new telehealth lactation-consulting program is an improvement to the warmline by allowing women who deliver a baby in a hospital without a lactation consultant to be able to access one. Plans are under way to extend this program to more hospitals by the end of this year.
Baptist Health is an Arkansas-based, locally owned and managed, not-for-profit, faith-based health-care organization. Baptist Health is Arkansas’ most comprehensive health-care system with more than 7,600 employees operating eight hospitals with a ninth currently under construction in Conway. For more information about Baptist Health, call Baptist Health HealthLine at 1-888-BAPTIST or visit the website at baptist-health.com.
Breastfeeding rates in Arkansas are among the lowest in the country. In “The CDC Guide to Strategies to Support Mothers and Babies,” access to professional breastfeeding support is a key strategy. International board-certified lactation consultants are healthcare professionals who specialize in the management of breastfeeding and are identified in the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention guide as effective in improving hospital maternity-care practices and breastfeeding rates.
Baptist Health Expressly for You has a breastfeeding warmline that serves as a telephone support line for breastfeeding mothers all over the state. The new telehealth lactation-consulting program is an improvement to the warmline by allowing women who deliver a baby in a hospital without a lactation consultant to be able to access one. Plans are under way to extend this program to more hospitals by the end of this year.
Baptist Health is an Arkansas-based, locally owned and managed, not-for-profit, faith-based health-care organization. Baptist Health is Arkansas’ most comprehensive health-care system with more than 7,600 employees operating eight hospitals with a ninth currently under construction in Conway. For more information about Baptist Health, call Baptist Health HealthLine at 1-888-BAPTIST or visit the website at baptist-health.com.
