Breastfeeding Promotion Awards Announced
First Annual Awards Presentation October 2nd
NEWS RELEASE FROM PUBLIC HEALTH MADISON & DANE COUNTY Madison, WI - September 29, 2008 - Four individuals and businesses will be honored at the first annual Community Breastfeeding Promotion Awards ceremony on Thursday, October 2 at 2:00 p.m. at the Warner Park Community Center, 1625 Northport Drive in Madison. The Madison Breastfeeding Promotion Network and the Wisconsin Well Woman Program are sponsoring the first annual Breastfeeding Promotion Awards in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness month and the link that breastfeeding has as a protective factor against breast cancer. "These awards recognize those in our community who have demonstrated a strong commitment to the promotion, protection, and support of the practice of breastfeeding", said Alice Meyer, Public Health Nurse and Chair of the Madison Areas Breastfeeding Promotion Network. "Breastfeeding is widely recognized for improving health outcomes for mothers and babies." The following Award Recipients will be recognized at the October 2nd event: Adria Cannon, IBCLC, La Leche League, Lactation Assistance Services Adria Cannon has been a supportive La Leche League leader since 1996. As an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant she provides hands-on assistance to breastfeeding mothers at La Leche League, in the drop-in breastfeeding clinic, and the Nursing Mamas Resource Station at Happy Bambino. In addition, Adria has seen mothers in their homes in order to provide them care and support as a lactation consultant with Lactation Assistance Services. Adria has created a blog to keep people in Madison informed of new information on breastfeeding. The blog, http://madisonbreastfeedinghelp.wordpress.com contains pertinent information from a variety of breastfeeding sources and distills it in a way that is helpful, timely and important. Carousel Andrea Bayrd, Dane County Board Supervisor Carousel Bayrd, a breastfeeding mother herself, prepared, wrote and succeeded in helping to pass an ordinance to protect the rights of mothers to breastfeed in public in Dane County. The bill passed the Dane County Board on January 4, 2007. The passage of this bill inspired a similar bill to be passed by the Madison City Council on January 16, 2007 with Carousel testifying at the City Council in favor of the bill. In September 2007 Carousel also played a vital role in passing an ordinance that allowed Dane County employees to extend Family Leave to 26 weeks of unpaid family leave for parents of newly born or newly adopted children. Carousel has shown great leadership and commitment to writing and supporting the passage of bills designed to help mothers, as well as providing a model for others seeking to pass legislation protecting breastfeeding mothers. Happy Bambino In November 2004, Alison Dodge and Lea Wolf opened Happy Bambino, an innovative combination of resource center, retail store and community center in one location. Happy Bambino is a nurturing and supportive environment in which mother's can achieve their breastfeeding goals. The Nursing Mama's Resource Station is a drop-in breastfeeding clinic aimed at helping mothers encountering breastfeeding difficulties. The retail store provides rental breast pumps and sells a variety of supplies as well as informative breastfeeding books for adults and illustrative breastfeeding books for children. Breastfeeding classes are provided along with space for La Leche League group meetings. Flexible hours and the ability to bring a baby to the work place make this an ideal setting for breastfeeding employees. Happy Bambino has offered financial support to the Dane County Breastfeeding Symposium, World Breastfeeding Week and several other breastfeeding programs and activities. Happy Bambino has also rallied support and publicized the need for people to testify for breastfeeding rights bills before the state legislature. University of Wisconsin Bacteriology Department The University of Wisconsin Microbial Sciences Building has a special design feature: three rooms where nursing mothers are able to breastfeed. One room is designed specifically for nursing mothers while the other two are multi-use rooms. Most new buildings do not include a comfortable space dedicated to supporting nursing mothers in the workplace, but the Microbial Sciences building provides a welcoming and comfortable space for breastfeeding mothers who are students or faculty. Staff members of the Bacteriology Department, where 60% of the graduate students and one-third of the faculty are female, worked hard to advocate for the needs of working women as the building was designed. In addition to obtaining physical space to meet the needs of nursing mothers, the Department of Bacteriology has set aside money in a "Mom's on the Go!" fund that provides money for employees and graduate students to pay for a caretaker to accompany them and their infants to out of town professional meetings. This allows breastfeeding mothers to maintain involvement in their professional lives without necessitating separation from their nursing babies. -END-
