St. Christopher’s Celebrates Second Annual Breastfeeding Awareness Week at the Hospital

PHILADELPHIA - July 1, 2015 - PRLog -- To celebrate National Breastfeeding Awareness Month in August, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children will host a breastfeeding awareness week August 3-7, 2015 at the hospital, located at 160 East Erie Avenue in Philadelphia, PA. This is the second year that St. Christopher’s is hosting events in honor of the nationally-recognized month.

The events will help raise awareness for the importance of breastfeeding and provide helpful information to hospital employees, patients, and the community. Throughout the week, tables with educational materials on breastfeeding, staffed by St. Christopher’s employees, will be set up in two locations:  the Upper Atrium at the main hospital and the lobby of the new Center for the Urban Child, located across the parking lot from the hospital.

St. Christopher’s currently has a hospital-based breastfeeding group, comprised of physicians, nurses, and Certified Breastfeeding Counselors (CBC), a person who receives training and competency verification in breastfeeding, including helping a baby latch on, knowledge of milk production, prevention and management of sore nipples, feeding difficulties, counseling mothers, handling and storage of breast milk and practical feeding. The group assists NICU mothers who are learning to breastfeed, as well as provides support and education to mothers throughout the hospital.

Recently, this group collaborated with social workers from Ronald McDonald House, located on the campus of St. Christopher’s, to obtain hospital grade breast pumps to be available at the Ronald McDonald House.

According to Amanda Ring, RN, MSN, CRNP, NICU Nurse Educator at St. Christopher’s, establishing a full milk supply in the first ten days is critical to the success of long term breastfeeding, and without a hospital grade pump it can be very difficult.

In addition to providing support to inpatient babies, St. Christopher’s provides breastfeeding support for outpatient newborns.

“Currently, our group sees about 140-160 newborns per month and about 75% are breastfeeding or dual feeding [formula and breastfeeding,” says Deborah Sandrock, MD, International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), physician at St. Christopher’s. “We assist moms in obtaining personal items to help with breastfeeding and work closely with home care visiting nurses who are involved with our patients. We also have a MILK hotline that provides breastfeeding support to moms if they have questions or concerns between appointments.”

The purpose of the breastfeeding group at St. Christopher’s is to increase the rates of breastfeeding at St. Christopher’s and to raise awareness of its benefits.

“Breastfeeding may help to lower the risk of SIDS in babies, as well as reduce the risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Childhood Leukemia, ear infections, obesity and asthma,” says Dr. Sandrock. “Breast milk is also easier to digest than formula and is rich in nutrients and antibodies.”

Dr. Sandrock adds that breastfeeding may also lower the risk of Type 2 Diabetes, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and postpartum depression in women.

About St. Christopher’s Hospital

Since 1875, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children has been providing exceptional patient care and advancing new pediatric treatments through research and innovation. Through affiliations with Drexel University College of Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, and Albert Einstein Medical Center, St. Christopher’s is a teaching hospital helping to train the next generation of professionals in pediatric medicine. For more than 60 years, the hospital has been dedicated to not only the education and training of physicians; but, that of nurses and other allied health professionals.

St. Christopher’s is a 189-bed hospital that is committed to delivering high quality patient-centered care to children throughout the greater Delaware Valley. It has a full range of pediatric subspecialists to support the care of its patients and the families it serves. Its highly acclaimed programs include the highest level of pediatric trauma care and neonatal care, a Heart Center, Oncology unit and the only dedicated pediatric burn center in the region. St. Christopher’s also has one of the busiest emergency departments for children in the country, with over 70,000 annual visits.

St. Christopher’s once again achieved Magnet status in 2014 and numerous awards to St. Christopher’s physicians, who are frequently recognized in regional and national publications as “Top Docs” in their fields of expertise. In 2014, St. Christopher’s was the only pediatric hospital in the state and one of only nine nationally to be listed as a Top Children’s Hospital by The Leapfrog Group. The Leapfrog Top Children’s Hospital award is given to hospitals that demonstrate excellence in hospital safety and quality and is given to less than seven percent of eligible hospitals.

St. Christopher’s recently opened the Center for the Urban Child, which provides children with comprehensive services to help break the cycles of food insecurity, violence and childhood illness. Construction is currently underway for another facility, the Critical Care Tower, opening in 2016. The Critical Care Tower will feature advanced technology while incorporating families’ needs and will house 50 critical care and 60 NICU beds.