Amy Resnik

• Maryland Department of Health

Objectives The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative is an effective intervention to support maternal practices around breastfeeding. However, little is known about its impact on participants of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether Baby Friendly Hospital (BFH...

Background The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative is an effective intervention to support maternal practices around breastfeeding. However, adherence of hospitals to the Baby-Friendly 10 Steps, as determined from the perspective of women participating in the United States Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, has n...

Low-income U.S mothers have high smoking and low breastfeeding rates. Smoking is most prevalent among non-Hispanic white and black mothers. Although breastfeeding's benefits for infants whose mothers smoke outweigh risks of tobacco exposure through breast milk, these mothers may believe that breastfeeding is unsafe. Maryland WIC's 2007 database pro...

This qualitative study analyzes mothers' reports of breastfeeding care experiences from pregnancy through infancy. Most research on medical support for breastfeeding examines a specific practice or intervention during an isolated phase of care. Little is know about how mothers experience breastfeeding education and support from the prenatal period...

Maryland WIC introduced an enhanced food package October 1, 2009. The package for exclusively breastfeeding mothers was designed to facilitate increased duration, and concurrently introduced policy prohibited issuance of formula for the first month of life. Maryland's local WIC Agencies (LWAs, n=23) offer 3 types of breastfeeding support services:...

Introduction: Improving breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity, and duration is a priority for the Maryland WIC program. However, WIC participants' breastfeeding rates consistently fall below those of non-participants. Of the numerous factors that influence breastfeeding decision making, undergoing C-section delivery has been found to be an importan...

Introduction: Healthy People 2020 objectives include reducing low-risk mothers' primary Cesarean rate, minimizing formula use, and increasing breastfeeding exclusivity and duration. Currently, one third of U.S. mothers birth by Cesarean, and these mothers have lower breastfeeding rates. Though WIC supports breastfeeding, women enrolled in the progr...

In the United States, most mothers who initiate breastfeeding will either stop or begin supplementing with formula before their infants are 3 months old. Routine breastfeeding education and support following hospital discharge are critical to breastfeeding success. The purpose of this article is to identify this critical period for supporting and r...

Introduction: Following recommendations by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics, the USDA Special Supplemental Nutrition Program (WIC) promotes breastfeeding as the optimal infant feeding method and provides its prenatal and breastfeeding participants with breastfeeding education and support...

Introduction: Maryland WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselors (PC) provide participants with breastfeeding education and support to improve breastfeeding outcomes. However, many Maryland WIC clients don't initiate, or prematurely abandon breastfeeding. Numerous factors predict breastfeeding initiation and duration, including support from the infant's fa...

In October 2009, the USDA's WIC program implemented its revised food packages (RFP) to address chronic disease issues. Increasing whole grain consumption, per National Dietary Guidelines of 2005, was a priority and objective of the RFP,. In this presentation, we describe results from a survey prior to implementation of the RFP, about participants'...

Introduction: Many mothers face pressure to breastfeed from health professionals. Maryland WIC promotes breastfeeding, employing Breastfeeding Peer Counselors (PCs) to provide education and support. However, many Maryland WIC participants don't initiate breastfeeding or breastfeed only briefly. Mothers may feel obligated to offer acceptable reasons...

Introduction: The Maryland WIC program supports breastfeeding through various methods, including peer counselor education and support and distributing breast pumps. WIC recommends against pump use until infants are three weeks; however, many clients begin pumping soon after giving birth. Using qualitative analysis, we identify causes and consequenc...

WIC program prenatal breastfeeding education and support (BFES) is targeted specifically toward women who are least likely to adopt breastfeeding. Modifiable risk factors for these women are identified at enrollment and customized BFES is provided accordingly, to achieve breastfeeding goals. However, pre-pregnancy BMI is not frequently considered a...

Introduction Many WIC clients prematurely discontinue breastfeeding despite program efforts to increase initiation, duration and exclusivity. We report factors associated with early breastfeeding termination for African American (AA) women enrolled in 3 geographically representative Maryland WIC sites. Mixed method analysis of quantitative and qual...

This cross-sectional study examines Maryland's women, infants, and children (WIC) breastfeeding initiation rates by program participation. The authors report on data regarding demographic and health characteristics and infant feeding practices for infants (n = 18,789) newly WIC-certified from January 1, 2007 to June 30, 2007. The authors compared s...

The effect of diet, usual (44 +/- 4% energy as fat), high-fat (49 +/- 4% energy as fat), and moderate-fat (33 +/- 2% energy as fat), on gastric function (lipase and pepsin activities, pH, emptying rate) and intragastric digestion of fat were assessed in six children with cystic fibrosis. Fasting and postprandial activity of digestive enzymes, gastr...

The objective of this study was to examine breastfeeding peer counseling within the context of the organizational structure of state and local Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) agencies. The National WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselor Survey was distributed to a convenience sample of state WIC breastfeeding coordina...