To create an enabling environment for breastfeeding, Carolina Global Breastfeeding Initiative (CGBI) works in a variety of settings, including: on UNC’s campus, domestic and global.
On Campus
Carolina BEBES provides students an opportunity to learn about and support evidence-based birth and breastfeeding practices.
CGBI supports a student-group for graduate students interested in learning about and supporting breastfeeding on campus, in NC, in the US and globally. To learn more about Carolina BEBES, click the link and scroll below to see previous event fliers.
Support for breastfeeding on campus includes several types of benefits and services for faculty, students and staff, outlined in the UNC Breastfeeding Policy. For example, the maternal and child health department housed the first of many mothers’ rooms across campus.
Domestic
Enriching Maternity Care Communities in the Carolinas
Support for statewide activities, through technical support for program and policy impact, continues to be a major and successful focus of CGBI. Our staff actively participates in and supports the SIDS Safe Sleep Committee and in the NC Child Fatality Task Force’s Perinatal Health Committee.
Thanks to The Duke Endowment, CGBI was able to continue its work with maternity facilities that began with funding from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust early on in CGBI’s history. ENRICH Carolinas worked with hospitals in North and South Carolina and the communities they serve toward improved maternity care practices and continuity of care.
Additionally, CGBI staff continues to support the NC Breastfeeding Coalition (NCBC). In addition to administrative support, Kathy Parry served on the board from 2011-2018, including her most recent term as Chair, and Catherine Sullivan has been involved since its founding, co-chairing the IBCLC Advocacy Committee through 2018. This committee successfully advocated for reimbursement for lactation support services with NC Medicaid.
Previously, CGBI led initial NCBC efforts in achieving the “Ban the Bags Golden Bow Awards.” More than 3/4 of NC Maternity Centers have been recognized by the coalition as “bag-free”, meaning they do not distribute free bags with formula and marketing materials to women who deliver in their facility. Greater than 86% of live births are occurring in “bag-free” facilities.
United States
CGBI is a voting member organization of the United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) and supports several “constellations”, or topic-focused collaborative working groups. Catherine Sullivan served on the board of USBC as an elected director (2016-2017). USBC is an independent nonprofit organization that was formed in 1998* in response to the Innocenti Declaration of 1990. This declaration, signed by the US DHHS, calls on every nation to establish a multisectoral national breastfeeding committee comprised of representatives from relevant government departments, non-governmental organizations, and health professional associations to coordinate national breastfeeding initiatives. USBC is now a coalition of more than 140 organizations, plus countless state and local coalitions and tribal groups that support its mission to improve the Nation’s health by working collaboratively to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding.
Global
Miriam Labbok and Kathy Parry attend the first gathering of what is now the Global Breastfeeding Collective at UNICEF headquarters in NYC, 2015
CGBI continues the previous work started by CGBI founding director and Emeritus Professor Miriam Labbok, now deceased. Miriam served as Senior Advisor for Infant and Young Child Feeding at UNICEF (2001-2005), Chief of the Nutrition and Maternal/Infant Health Division of the Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Office of Health and Nutrition from (1996-2001), Director of Breastfeeding Initiatives for the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University (1986-1996), and conducted earlier work on reproductive health, breastfeeding and the development of the Lactational Amenorrhea Method for postpartum birthspacing.
CGBI is currently contributes to global maternal and child health through its membership in several global-oriented organizations, including WHO/UNICEF led Global Breastfeeding Collective and CORE Group.
CGBI has also had a consulting collaboration with Food for the Hungry Guatemala, providing technical assistance, training, curriculum through consecutive projects related to Responsive Feeding. As a long time supporter of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), and their World Breastfeeding Week, CGBI has served as key writer for the 2010 theme and North American Region (WABA-NA) representative prior to Miriam’s passing. CGBI is currently a member of WABA, and Kathy Parry participates annually as a reviewer for the WBW Action Folder. CGBI has been a member of the Global Breastfeeding Collective since its inception under a different name in 2015, and Kathy Parry is currently serving a term on the Coordinating Committee of the organization.
We look forward to future global collaborations, especially in the areas of infant feeding in complex disaster and recovery settings, and maternity care practices in health care facilities.
