NLCA News for November

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Your news source for all things related to advocating for and
growing the IBCLC® profession in the US!

Follow along as we share news from the field of lactation-related policy, legislation, and hot topics you most want to explore. Visit our website and get involved at NLCA.us.

November 2022

We exist to empower and advocate for holders of the IBCLC® credential in the marketplace, in legislation and in policy. Our vision is to advance health and patient safety by ensuring access to clinical lactation care by persons holding the IBCLC® credential.

NLCA signed onto advocacy letters from the National WIC Association and the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP)

NLCA signed on to the letter to support WIC in the omnibus/end-of-year legislative session, part of which was an ask to advance a comprehensive, bipartisan Child Nutrition Reauthorization that will expand WIC eligibility, modernize WIC services, and invest in the nation’s infant feeding infrastructure. The February recall of Abbott Nutrition infant formula products exposed vulnerabilities in the nation’s infant feeding infrastructure, which has consistently underinvested in lactation support. The letter urges Congress to build out community infrastructure for human milk feeding.

The Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs has coordinated a letter to House and Senate Leadership in support of establishing permanent, nationwide 12-month postpartum Medicaid coverage, in a year-end legislative package. NLCA was a signor in support of the legislation. Extending Medicaid coverage from the current requirement of 60-days postpartum to 12-months nationwide, is critical to lowering the nation’s alarming maternal mortality rate. Twelve months of continuous Medicaid eligibility for postpartum individuals would remove key access barriers that often prevent families from getting the care they need.

November is Prematurity Awareness Month

November is National Prematurity Awareness Month. The preterm birth rate in the US has climbed to 10.5% with over 300,000 infants born too early. NLCA was asked by the Institute for Patient Access to write a guest blog regarding the importance of lactation care for NICU parents. The blog mentions the importance of lactation care in the NICU delivered by an IBCLC©.

The IBCLC© is an integral member of the NICU staff. Several research studies illustrate the importance in breastfeeding outcomes when lactation care is available in the NICU from an IBCLC©. Readers may wish to use these studies to validate the necessity of appropriate IBCLC© staffing in their NICU.

Mercado, K., et al. (2019). What Is the Impact of NICU-Dedicated Lactation Consultants? An Evidence-Based Practice Brief. Advances in Neonatal Care, 19(5), 383-393.
Findings: During hospitalization, NICUs staffed with dedicated board-certified LCs have increased potential to yield improved breastfeeding rates through hospital discharge, increased proportion of infants who receive mother's own milk, and increased duration of breastfeeding or human milk expression through hospital discharge.

Leeman, K.T., et al. (2019). Improving Access to Lactation Consultation and Early Breast Milk Use in an Outborn NICU. Pediatric Quality and Safety, 4(1), e130.
Findings: Increasing timely access to IBCLC© services in the NICU resulted in increased use of breastmilk on day 7.

Hoban, R., et al. (2022). Proactive lactation care is associated with improved outcomes in a referral NICU. Journal of Human Lactation, 38(1),148-155.
Findings: A proactive lactation approach facilitated by increased IBCLC© staffing and automatic consultations for all patients was associated with significant increases in infants receiving any mothers own milk during the NICU stay.

NICU staffing standards for IBCLCs© can be found in:

Association for Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN)'s Standards for Professional Registered Nurse Staffing for Perinatal Units
Lober A., et al. (2021). Position paper—Professional lactation support staffing in the hospital setting. Clinical Lactation, 12(4), 157-158.

Ellen Lechtenberg RD, IBCLC

My husband and I started our own business Great Western E bikes in 2015 and I helped him as co-owner and manager until we sold the store in 2021. I took an early retirement from Intermountain Healthcare Primary Children's Hospital where I worked for almost 30 years and have started my own consulting business L BERG LLC. I am currently contracted as a Management Consultant/Interim Executive Director at the Mountain West Mothers Milk Bank in Salt Lake City Utah. I love to spend time outside and enjoy biking, 4-wheeling, and gardening. At the end of the day my favorite things to relax are reading and counted cross-stitch.
For more about Ellen's impressive professional accomplishments click here.

PUMP Act for Nursing Mothers

NLCA signed on to a letter urging the Senate to pass the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act (S.1658)
The PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act would protect breastfeeding employees by strengthening the existing Break Time for Nursing Mothers law passed in 2010. However, placing this the law within the statute that regulates the payment of overtime for hourly workers resulted in 9 million salaried mothers being ineligible for this coverage. The PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act advanced out of the Senate HELP Committee with unanimous, bipartisan support in May 2021 and passed the House in October 2021. Currently the Senate must now pass the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act. Advocates can contact their own senators and ask for their support of this bill.

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