Conner Creek Mother Nurture Project

Michigan Nightlight: In your view, what makes your program innovative, effective or remarkable? 
Patricia Soares, Conner Creek Mother Nurture Project: Because we are taking this community approach, we don’t have the registered nurses or lactation specialists. We really want this to be a grassroots-type program that is building in the community an awareness of breastfeeding among new moms, particularly in the African-American community.

We really want this to be a grassroots-type program that is building in the community an awareness of breastfeeding among new moms, particularly in the African-American community.

We will be having community baby showers and community fairs. We are already in partnership with one Conner Creek collaborative already, and we have a lot of programs that are community oriented, like fresh food, dance and exercise programs – all kinds of health connections – and we’re really trying to just build on those existing partnerships.
 
What was the best lesson learned in the past year?
One of the things that we learned, which we already knew, was that we have an OB doctor and a nurse-midwife who are both very committed to breastfeeding, but it’s difficult to get that buy-in during a 15-minute clinic visit. We really want to do something and wrap our arms around families, so the program offers incentives so the moms want to stay and participate. We want to make it a one-stop shop where they can get signed up for WIC, see their OB doctor, participate in the support groups and do some fun activities while they are here for their clinic visit.
 
What was the hardest lesson learned in the past year?
I don’t think I have had a hard lesson. I’ve been in the public health community for more than 40 years and there are lessons we have learned over the decades in terms of what we think would work. We know our more successful programs of this nature really have to have that buy-in from a leader in that neighborhood and in that community. It may be a mother on the block everyone kind of flocks to, or it may be someone outside the school community that’s connected to the school community. When we’re talking about changing the mindset around breastfeeding, it’s become so convenient (to feed formula) and such a push from the formula companies you rarely hear a mom on their own saying she’s going to breastfeed. There is not a lot of support and encouragement for a mom who decides this is something she wants to do. Our OB doctor will push it while they are in the hospital. One of the things she found, it was hard to get buy-in from hospital staff.

When we’re talking about changing the mindset around breastfeeding, it’s become so convenient (to feed formula) and such a push from the formula companies you rarely hear a mom on their own saying she’s going to breastfeed.

It’s difficult to send that message that this is the best thing if they get that baby on formula right away. We really try to engage mom in the hospital, if we can get that mom to breastfeed for at least three weeks.
 
What really differentiates this program? We’re hoping just this whole outreach to the community is going to help us and we’ll see if we can get the grandmamma who has a lot of influence to buy in… can I get the boyfriend who thinks those breasts belong to him to buy into the program? These are the challenges I know we face.
 
What are the keys to success for your program? In the individual relationships we have. I believe that strongly, and this has been my motto for 40 years: people don’t really care how much you know, they want to know how much you care. If we can instill that we’re not just breastfeeding fanatics, but we really care about this family and breastfeeding is a plus, we’re really about healthy moms and healthy babies.
 
In looking at programs similar to yours, which program do you think is doing exceptional work?
For me, I’m going back more on my own instinct and experience. We’ve done similar things in the past. When WIC first started pushing breastfeeding, one of programs we implemented was really trying to get moms interested in it. Of course, the goal is that we’re trying to make an impact in the unacceptable infant mortality rate. We try to meet moms where they are.