May 18, 2016 Meeting Notes– Capital Area Breastfeeding Coalition

1. Introductions–welcome to Marji Cyrul, new Breastfeeding Coordinator, MDHHS

2. BF Fun Get-together feedback– event went well, though it was competing with beautiful spring weather! Big thanks to Lindsey, Ann, Emily, and everyone who contributed to planning and setting up the event.

3. April 29 Nurse-In at the State Capitol–feedback–There were new moms who attended. Good turn-out and good press coverage.

4. Allen Neighborhood Center Kid Fest— request for breastfeeding table & volunteers on July 20 during market (2 – 7 or a portion of that). Any volunteers to host a bf area? Diane will email Emily W. to see if she would be a point person to coordinate this and to email or facebook post to find 2 moms to help staff it and coordinate with Denise Paquette at Allen Street. Mallory may be interested in helping.

 5. Communications— switch to ChimpMail? Ann described some advantages and disadvantages of using ChimpMail for sending out info, news, events. It’s a nice app, usable on smart phones, you can find out who has opened the email, and can put sign-ups on the web-page. Table further discussion until next meeting.

Ann has improved the appearance of the website and the facebook page with new photo and correcting the spelling of Capital on the logo (thanks, Ann!). She is waiting for more photos so they can rotate. Also, the BF Resource Guides on the website should now be up to date, including the 1/2 page short guide.

6. Breastfeeding Month— Diane will ask Nicole if Willow Tree can put together a calendar, as they did last year.

Planned activities:  

-Great Latch-On,possibly at the State Capitol as well as at Mother&Earth.   

-BF Walk at Capitol on August 3,

-La Leche League Live, Love, Latch event/picnic at Patriarche Park on August14

-Screening of The Milky Way (date, venue to be determined)by Willow Tree

If you know of other events, or are planning an event, please let the coalition know.

 7. Coffective— Marji provided the group with info about the Coffective app. The goals of the app are positive– to provide updated resource info to providers, and to provide consistent bf messages to providers and moms about breastfeeding, accessible by phone or computer. Discussion included questions about how and why moms would use the app, and wondered if the title “Coffective” will draw people to use it.

 8. Updates:

            –Black Breastfeeding Sisterhood– lots of new moms, starting an evening group on 4th Mondays, 6 – 8 p.m., planning a barbecue

             –McLaren Hospital–update from Hilary: Hilary.Pamperin@mclaren.org  We have been working to provide every patient with a breast pump prior to discharge if the patient’s insurance covers our on site DME. This has been working REALLY well with the Medela, but our DME is trying to transition to Evenflo. We are working with our DME to continue supporting Medela for our patients because corporately we’ve heard negative feedback from patients and they are cumbersome/not so user friendly. I’ve heard that Sparrow’s DME ONLY uses Medela. If someone from Sparrow is at the meeting, would you be willing to pass along my contact information to discuss?

             –Climb Out of Darkness– June 18, looking for sponsors.

 9Next Meeting: June 21, 5:30 – 7:30, Mother & Earth Baby Boutique