The Gratiot County Breastfeeding Coalition hosted the ‘Rock & Rest Tent’ at the 2024 Alma Highland Festival! Providing a safe and comfortable space to feed and change infants is important in a breastfeeding supportive community!
15 Lactation Supporters gathered together to learn from Shonte' Terhune-Smith of
Shonte's experiences working with clients in private practice as well as in the clinic setting in Genesee County prompted thought-provoking conversations and many new ideas for supporting breastfeeding families in our community!
On August 5, 2023 nearly 50 adults and children gathered at Wright Park in Alma for Gratiot County Breastfeeding Coalition’s first Breastfeeding Awareness Walk to celebrate #NationalBreastfeedingMonth and #worldbreastfeedingweek!
Representatives from MyMichigan Health, Meridian Medicaid, Helping Hands Doula Services LLC, Child Advocacy-Gratiot County, Mid Michigan District Health Department and Gratiot/Isabella Great Start Collaborative were available to provide support and education for families during the event!
We walked as a group from the park, downtown to the His Place Family Enrichment parking lot for a break to blow bubbles, and then returned to the park for lunch and doorprizes.
Thank you Mid-Michigan District Health Dept for providing the bubbles! Lunch was prepared by Helman's Meat Market and paid for with funding from the Gratiot County Community Foundation grant awarded to the Breastfeeding Coalition. Each participant went home with an awesome door prize, donated by local and national businesses!
It was wonderful hearing the stories of each individual breastfeeding journey and personal testimonies of why it is important to our local residents to have a community that supports breastfeeding!
2023 Breastfeeding Awareness Walk!
The Global Big Latch On events take place at registered locations around the world, where people gather together to breastfeed and offer peer support to each other. Friends, family and community join this celebration to promote and support breastfeeding. The Gratiot County Breastfeeding Coalition was the only Michigan host for The Global BIG Latch On 2023! We hosted 15 parents and children, contributing to the total participant count of over 1,900 World wide! The children had fun coloring pictures of breastfeeding animals, and the mothers shared stories about their successes and struggles throughout their nursing journeys. The nurslings ranged from 9 months to 3 years old!
Special thanks to Robert Wyse for capturing these beautiful memories of our event, as well as portraits of each breastfeeding dyad!
To learn more about The Global Big Latch On, visit biglatchon.org.
The Gratiot County Breastfeeding Coalition provided all of the public libraries in our county with two new children’s books about breastfeeding in honor of National Reading Month, March 2023!
Coalition members enjoyed hand delivering the books to Ashley Library, Alma Public Library, Howe Memorial Library Breckenridge, Thompson Home Public Library, T.A. Cutler Memorial Library, and Seville Township Library.
The books are also available in the Child Advocacy-Gratiot County Lending Library.
Ziora’s Quest: Mommy’s Milk Rocks! takes children on an adventure to discover the many benefits of breastmilk, and is especially helpful for older children who may be welcoming home a new sibling. The author, Dr. Chiamaka Onyewuchi Nnamani is a pediatrician and passionate breastfeeding advocate. She also offers a companion activity book on her website: https://www.dramakannamani.com/
Nursies When the Sun Shines: A little book on nightweaning facilitates communication between parent and young child, thereby making the process of night weaning as gentle and easy as possible. The author Katherine Havener is an IBCLC and generously donated her books to us, and also offers a free guide to night weaning on her website: http://www.starlactation.com/nursies-guide.html
Reading to children about breastfeeding is a simple and effective way to support and normalize breastfeeding!
Stop into your local library today to check out one of the new books.
