Baptist Hospital Women’s Center Highlights Breastfeeding Awareness Month

8/01/2022

Throughout her pregnancy, Catherine Wriston planned to breastfeed her child. But breastfeeding was more difficult than she expected when her newborn son was faced with a five-day hospital stay following his birth. Wriston was able to get guidance from Baptist Hospital Women’s Center. Lactation services offered through the center to support breastfeeding mothers include educational classes, one-on-one meetings with lactation consultants, take-home resources and other ongoing services.

Breastfeeding offers many benefits to both the mother and child, but it’s not always easy. Many mothers need extra support and guidance. “I’m the oldest of my siblings and my mom breastfed all of us, so it seemed like the natural choice,” Wriston said. “But I didn’t know how hard it would be. A tongue-tie prevented my son from getting enough milk and his sugar levels kept dropping.” A tongue-tie is a condition some newborns have that restricts the tongue’s range of motion.

During her stay at Baptist Hospital, Wriston was faced with needing to supplement nursing her newborn with bottle feeding. Baptist lactation consultant Jayne Voyles, R.N., BSN, IBCLC, LCCE, FACCE, CBC, encouraged Wriston to supplement with pumped breast milk instead of formula. “So many of the Baptist staff were wonderful,” Wriston said. “They went above and beyond to help and encourage us. Breastfeeding slowly got easier, and now we are still going strong nine weeks later!”

Voyles played a key role in Wriston’s success in breastfeeding, as she does for many moms. “I have families that keep in touch with me after they get discharged,” Voyles said. “Some still need advice occasionally, and others just share life updates. Success stories like Catherine’s are what motivate me to keep working and making a difference, one patient at a time.”

Baptist also supports team members who return to work while still breastfeeding, including dedicated space for nursing mothers to pump their breast milk while at work. Yazaundria Lane works in labor and delivery and is currently breastfeeding her 9-month-old daughter. “Baptist supplies everything we need including breast pumps, pump supplies, a refrigerator and even storage bags,” Lane said. “And our pumping room has a code on the door, so it feels secure. Where I work, there are two private pumping stations so that if more than one mom needs to pump at a time, we can.”

Baptist’s newest pumping room was just completed at Gulf Breeze Hospital. These pumping rooms are a step toward offering even more support to team members and visitors who need to pump.

Baptist offers a variety of prenatal classes in addition to breastfeeding support. For more information, visit https://www.ebaptisthealthcare.org/birth.