Although Via Christi Regional Medical Center was one of the first hospitals in the Midwest to establish lactation services in 1989 and provides excellent inpatient and limited outpatient services, there has been a deficiency in the continuum of breastfeeding care.  The breastfeeding initiation rate at Via Christi is 65%.  Follow-up calls to dismissed breastfeeding mothers have documented that by one week one out of four have stopped breastfeeding.  So Via Christi recognizes that their patients are far from the Healthy People 2010 goals of 75% initiation of breastfeeding, 50% at six months and 25% at one year.  Furthermore, Via Christi predominantly serves a large percentage of multicultural and low income women through their Obstetrical Services and recognizes that those women are at risk for early termination of breastfeeding.

In the spring of 2008, after several years of investigating and planning, Via Christi opened a walk-in breastfeeding clinic that is a comprehensive resource center to support new mothers in reaching their breastfeeding goals.  The clinic is open three days a week for four hours and is open to all new mothers irregardless if they deliver at Via Christi or not. 

The clinic was not included in the inpatient OB budget, so there was a need to find resources prior to opening the clinic.  These resources included space, furniture, supplies and seed money.  A grant was written to the Hospital Volunteers Foundation to fund the clinic for the first year.

Outcomes that will be measured include the number of mothers and infants who visit the clinic and the breastfeeding rate at three and six months of those who visit the clinic.  Statistics will be available for the poster presentation.