(SAVANNAH, GA) On any given day, more than a hundred coastal residents will walk through the doors of one of Gateway Community Service Board’s facilities serving eight coastal Georgia counties from Chatham to Camden. The community-based organization provides services for children, youth, adults, and families with mental illness, developmental disabilities, and/or substance use disorders.
“Our mission is to provide comprehensive services for clients, which includes ensuring they feel comfortable and safe while here,” said Leigh Ann Kittle. “One way we do that is by providing a dedicated and safe space for breastfeeding and pumping.”
Kittle says the organization offers lactation rooms in four Chatham County facilities plus several in other locations throughout the region.
“The response has been overwhelming from the parents who use the organization’s lactation rooms. They tell us they feel seen and heard, supported, and our staff feels the same way.”
“Breastfeeding is considered an important act of nurture that should be encouraged for the health of both the mother and child,” said Dr. Elsie Smalls, Healthy Savannah’s REACH Team Breastfeeding program manager. “This is why we are launching a new campaign called ‘Breastfeeding Welcome Here’ to recognize organizations that provide dedicated lactation spaces and to encourage others to offer them to their employees and guests.”
The program is funded by a CDC Racial & Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant administered by Healthy Savannah and the YMCA of Coastal Georgia since 2023.
Healthy Savannah is providing door decals along with certificates of recognition to local organizations that currently comply with Georgia’s breastfeeding legislation to celebrate their commitment but also to promote the ease and benefits of adopting breastfeeding-friendly policies. The materials are available in English and Spanish, with the certificates suitable for framing and displaying in public spaces such as employee break rooms and visitor waiting rooms.
Some of the local businesses already offering dedicated lactation spaces include Gateway’s Azalea, Jasmine, Magnolia and Chatham behavioral health crisis centers, Oglethorpe Mall, Mitsubishi Power Americas, Inc., all locations of the Coastal Health District in eight counties including the Chatham County Health Department, Grayson Stadium, Enmarket Arena, Chatham County Sheriff’s Office and the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport.
“We are sure there may be other employers in Savannah and Chatham County that offer supportive breastfeeding-friendly environments and accommodation for employees and guests, and we would love to hear from you so that we can add your organization’s name to our recognition database,” said Smalls.
Smalls says it’s easy for companies to comply with Georgia’s current laws which support breastfeeding in public, require employers to provide a reasonable amount of paid break time and a private space for employees to pump, and encourage breastfeeding in general as an important act of nature that promotes maternal and infant health.
“Our goal with this campaign is to recognize organizations already in compliance with the State’s laws by helping them communicate their breastfeeding-friendly policies with their employees and guests,” said Smalls. “But more importantly, it is to encourage those that have not yet become breastfeeding-friendly workplaces to adopt practices and policies that support this legislation because it is the right thing to do.”
Smalls says organizations that support parents in their nursing journey can also increase employee morale, a sense of belonging, and workplace productivity.
“Science overwhelmingly shows that parents who feed their babies human milk are significantly less likely to miss work in their infant’s first year of life and tend to have higher retention rates and lower healthcare and insurance costs as their children are sick less,” said Smalls. “The benefit of implementing breastfeeding-friendly policies greatly outweighs the small cost of providing a lactation space and time for employees to pump.”
Healthy Savannah has a campaign goal of announcing a significant increase in local businesses that have adopted breastfeeding-friendly policies in time for National Breastfeeding Month, to be observed in August.
To recognize a business or nonprofit as a breastfeeding-friendly space or workplace, email Healthy Savannah’s Breastfeeding strategy manager, Dr. Elsie Smalls, at elsie@healthysavannah.org. For more information, or to participate in Healthy Savannah’s Breastfeeding Landscape Evaluation Survey, visit https://healthysavannah.org/our-programs/breastfeeding/
Georgia’s Breastfeeding Legislation:
Breastfeeding in Public: https://www.mamava.com/breastfeeding-law/georgia
Lactation Law: https://www.abetterbalance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Georgia-Lactation-Law-2.pdf
Breastfeeding Encouragement: https://www.georgiabreastfeedingcoalition.org/breastfeeding-legislation
ABOUT THE YMCA OF COASTAL GEORGIA/HEALTHY SAVANNAH GRANT FOR RACIAL AND ETHNIC APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY HEALTH: In September 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded a second grant called Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) to Healthy Savannah and the YMCA of Coastal Georgia. $5.1 million in funding is being deployed over a five-year period to be utilized in an “upstream” approach to foster sustainable health equity among racial and ethnic minority populations in low-wealth neighborhoods in areas of nutrition, physical activity and the reduction of chronic diseases. The renewed funding enables work to continue which began under the initial, five-year, $3.4 million REACH grant awarded in 2018, and a supplemental grant awarded in 2021 to increase awareness and acceptance of COVID-19 and flu adult immunizations. Working with more than 200 community partners and organizations, the Savannah/Chatham County project team’s specific goals in implementing the new five-year grant include fostering physical activity by creating greater access to safe places to walk, run, bike and play; elevating the health and wellness of the community through policy, systems, and environmental change; and providing education and awareness regarding adult immunizations, especially as they relate to health disparities in chronic conditions of hypertension, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity. The administrators will also continue to foster stronger connections between people and the healthcare providers who serve them by supporting awareness and use of the HERO Help Me database. In July 2022, Healthy Savannah received the CDC’s 2022 REACH Lark Galloway-Gilliam Award for Advancing Health Equity Challenge. The award recognizes extraordinary individuals and entities whose work has contributed to advancing health equity.
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