New Orleans Be the Change Spotlight :: Introducing The New Orleans Breastfeeding Center

breastfeeding, lactation, infant feeding

This month for our “Be the Change Spotlight” we’d like to introduce you to The New Orleans Breastfeeding Center (“NOBC”), an organization committed to providing high-quality, holistic, and evidence-based lactation and infant feeding support to families in the New Orleans metro area and surrounding parishes.

How New Orleans Breastfeeding Center got started

Latona Giwa of Birthmark Doula Collective in New Orleans.

NOBC was founded in 2018 by “Nurse Nikki” Greenaway and Latona Giwa, two community Lactation consultants and maternal child health providers. Both healthcare providers gave support to perinatal families in New Orleans for 8+  years and saw the large gap in lactation support in the city and throughout the state as well. The Affordable Care Act mandates the coverage of lactation services, but at that time, lactation services did not accept insurance. This meant people had to pay cash for care which resulted in care that was elite and inequitable. Black women and babies were getting the least lactation support and having the worst maternal infant health outcomes. These healthcare providers wanted to change that and founded NOBC as the answer.

What New Orleans Breastfeeding Center does

The NOBC provides high quality, holistic, and evidence-based lactation and infant feeding support to families in the New Orleans metro area and surrounding parishes. Their team of Infant Feeding Specialists provide dyadic (both parent and child) lactation assessment, family-centered education, infant feeding classes, emergency preparedness education, parent support groups, and infant feeding supplies to pregnant and parenting families. NOBC improves the quality of infant feeding support in the area by providing consultation and continuing education to medical facilities and providers.

NOBC has recently merged with Birthmark Doula Collective in an effort to provide holistic support to families in the perinatal period through direct support services and comprehensive childbirth education. They are changing the way Lactation support is done by eliminating the barriers. They know breastfeeding questions don’t wait and they don’t always happen during business hours. As a result, they now offer a free, no appointment, virtual drop-in clinic every weekday (9:30-11:30am) and a free text support hotline every evening (8-10pm, 7 days a week). Just follow the links on their website HERE or text 504-535-4223. Nurse Nikki has also launched Bloom Maternal Health, where she offers home and tele-health services to prenatal and postpartum women.

How you can support New Orleans Breastfeeding Center

You can donate funds to NOBC HERE or you can purchase from the Amazon wishlist HERE. When you make a donation to NOBC of any kind, they are able to provide free visits and feeding supplies to members of our community who are in need.

Learn more about New Orleans Breastfeeding Center ::
Website • Facebook • Instagram

If you’re interested in nominating an organization to be featured in our New Orleans Be the Change Spotlight, please email us at [email protected].

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