Climate and Environmental Change: A Generation at Risk.

ABSTRACT: Climate and environmental changes have been described as the biggest global health threat of the 21st century, with the potential to cause immediate harm in early life with important lifelong effects, and important consequences for future generations. Pregnant women and children are increasingly being recognized as vulnerable populations in the context of climate change. The effects can be direct or indirect through heat stress, extreme weather events, and air pollution, potentially affecting both the immediate and long-term health of pregnant women and newborns through a broad range of mechanisms. Climate and environmental changes have wide-ranging effects on a woman's reproductive life including sexual maturation and fertility, pregnancy outcomes, lactation, breastfeeding, and menopause. A comprehensive overview of these impacts is presented as well as opportunities for interventions for nurses practicing in perinatal, neonatal, midwifery, and pediatric specialties.

Examining the Baby Café Model and Mothers' Breastfeeding Duration, Meeting of Goals, and Exclusivity.

Objective: Accessible community lactation support impacts a woman's breastfeeding success by offering timely intervention and solutions, thereby allowing mothers to achieve breastfeeding goals and improve overall breastfeeding rates. Although the impact of breastfeeding support has been well established, there is a lack of consistency in the development and evaluation of support models. This report examines two differing populations of Baby Café attendees. The study evaluated the mother's achievement of personal and nationally recommended breastfeeding goals, the frequency of attending a Baby Café, and their ratings of the program as helpful in solving breastfeeding problems. Methods: A total of 559 mothers attending two Baby Cafés, one in Massachusetts and the other in southern Texas, were surveyed when their babies were 6 months old and again over age 12 months. Actual breastfeeding duration was compared with the mothers' initially stated goals and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended goals, and then evaluated against the number of Café attendances. The mother's rating of the Café for helpfulness was measured using a 1-5 effectiveness scale. Results: Results show that mothers attending either of the surveyed Baby Cafés that served distinctly different populations reported higher breastfeeding exclusivity rates and higher rates of 12-month breastfeeding duration than national rates reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than 70% of all mothers surveyed rated the Café as most effective. Conclusions: The Baby Café model was shown to be effective at helping mothers reach breastfeeding goals regardless of the Café's different geographical settings and the socioeconomic characteristics of the populations served.