Creating Environments to Support Breastfeeding: The Challenges and Facilitators of Policy Development in Hospitals, Clinics, Early Care and Education, and Worksites.

Objectives Supportive organizational breastfeeding policies can establish enabling environments for breastfeeding. In this qualitative study we identify facilitators and barriers to the development, adoption, and implementation of supportive breastfeeding policies and practices in four influential sectors for breastfeeding women: hospitals, clinics, early care and education settings, and worksites. Methods We interviewed 125 individuals representing 110 organizations in Washington State about their breastfeeding policy development and implementation process between August 2014 and February 2015. Greenhalgh's diffusion of innovations framework guided the interviews and qualitative analysis. Results Breastfeeding policy facilitators across the sectors include national and state laws and regulations, performance tracking requirements, and an increasingly supportive sociopolitical climate; barriers include limited resources and appreciation about the need for breastfeeding policies, and certain organizational characteristics such as workforce age. Despite broad support for breastfeeding, organizations differed on perceptions about the usefulness of written breastfeeding policies. Personal breastfeeding experiences of policy makers and staff affect organizational breastfeeding policies and practices. Conclusions for Practice Supportive organizational systems and environments are built through effective policy development processes; public health can support breastfeeding policy development and assure a coordinated continuum of care by leveraging federal health care policy requirements, building networks to support training and collaboration, and disseminating strategies that reflect the personal nature of breastfeeding.

Insights from Washington State's COVID-19 Response: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of WIC Remote Services and Expanded Food Options Using the RE-AIM Framework.

BACKGROUND: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington State's Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WA WIC) adopted federal waivers to transition to remote service delivery for certification and education appointments. WA WIC also expanded the approved food list without using federal waivers, adding more than 600 new items to offset challenges participants experienced accessing foods in stores. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the reach and effectiveness of the programmatic changes instituted by WA WIC during the COVID-19 pandemic; the processes, facilitators, and challenges involved in their implementation; and considerations for their continuation in the future. DESIGN: A mixed-methods design, guided by the RE-AIM framework, including virtual, semi-structured focus groups and interviews with WA WIC staff and participants, and quantitative programmatic data from WIC agencies across the state. PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: This study included data from 52 state and local WIC staff and 40 WIC participants across the state of Washington and from various WA WIC programmatic records (2017-2021). The research team collected data and conducted analyses between January 2021 and August 2021. ANALYSIS: An inductive thematic analysis approach with Dedoose software was used to code qualitative data, generate themes, and interpret qualitative data. Descriptive statistics were calculated for quantitative programmatic data, including total participant count, percent increase and decrease in participation, percent of food benefits redeemed monthly, and appointment completion rates. RESULTS: All WA WIC participants (n = 125,279 in May 2020) experienced the programmatic changes. Participation increased by 2% from March to December 2020 after WA WIC adopted programmatic changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Certification and nutrition education completion rates increased by 5% and 18% in a comparison of June 2019 with June 2020. Food benefit redemption also increased immediately after the food list was expanded in April 2020. Staff and participants were highly satisfied with remote service delivery, predominantly via the phone, and participants appreciated the expanded food options. Staff and participants want a remote service option to continue and suggested various changes to improve service quality. CONCLUSIONS: Participation in WIC and appointment completion rates increased after WA WIC implemented service changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff and participants were highly satisfied with remote services, and both desire a continued hybrid model of remote and in-person WIC appointments. Some of the suggested changes to WIC, especially the continuation of remote services, would require federal policy change, and others could be implemented under existing federal regulations.

Breastfeeding Outcomes in Washington State: Determining the Effect of Loving Support Peer Counseling Program and Characteristics of Participants at WIC Agencies.

OBJECTIVE: Determining the effect of the Loving Support Peer Counseling Program (LSPCP), and characteristics of participants on breastfeeding (BF) outcomes at Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) agencies in Washington State. DESIGN: Nonrandomized treatment vs control. SETTING: Public Health-Seattle and King County (PHSKC), Catholic Health Initiatives Franciscan Medical Group (CHIFMG). PARTICIPANTS: Women enrolled in WIC (intervention: PHSKC, n = 15,290; CHIFMG, n = 3,582). INTERVENTIONS: Clinics with a LSPCP. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: BF initiation and BF duration of all infants who turned 8 months old during the reported period. ANALYSIS: Two-tailed binomial test and tree-based regression. RESULTS: Both PHSKC and CHIFMG clinics with a LSPCP expressed significant (P < .001) improvement in BF initiation and BF duration for >6 months. The likelihood that women enrolled in WIC would initiate BF at PHSKC clinics increased by 3%, whereas those in CHIFMG clinics increased by 6.8%. Women receiving services in smaller PHSKC clinics (n < 60 women) were likely to breastfeed their infants at >1 week. The proportionalities of non-Hispanic and black participants in PHSKC clinics were the primary and secondary predictors of the likelihood of BF discontinuing between 7 and 28 days' duration. In addition, clinics serving participants who spoke Tigrigna had increased rates of BF for a minimum of 6 months. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Findings may be used to reevaluate funding allocations, secure grants to reduce program constraints to stabilize LSPCP, develop strategies to reduce BF cessation at larger clinics, and improve peer counseling and other BF support to black and non-Hispanic women in the early postpartum period. The findings contribute to the study of the effects of LSPCP on BF initiation and duration while furthering a scholarly understanding of the way in which the WIC program interacts with participant characteristics at 2 local WIC agencies in Washington State.