CHEER Equity
  • Home
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Our History
    • Our Team
    • Contact Us
    • Support Our Work
  • CHAMPS
    • Mississippi CHAMPS
    • AI/AN CHAMPS
    • CHAMPS South
    • Trainings, Webinars & Conferences
    • Breastfeeding IPE
    • Sustainability
    • Become a CHAMPS Hospital
  • AI/AN Health
    • AI/AN CHAMPS
    • MSPI/DVPI Technical Assistance
    • CHAs and CHIPs >
      • Blackfeet Community Health Assessment
      • Northern Cheyenne Community Health Assessment
      • Rocky Boy's Community Health Assessment
      • Blackfeet Community Health Improvement Plan
    • Indigenous Breastfeeding Counselor Course
    • Drug Use Prevention >
      • Drug Use Prevention Blackfeet
      • Healthy Mothers, Healthy Tribe Initiative
  • CHEER International
    • CHEERing: CHEER International - Greece >
      • CHEER Greece: Refugees >
        • Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies
        • Infant Feeding Data in Athens
        • Camp Mapping
    • International Conferences >
      • Past International Conferences >
        • Galaxias and IBFAN Greece 12th Breastfeeding Conference
        • Greece - Postgraduate Seminar 2018
        • Greece - 13th Breastfeeding Seminar 2018
        • UNICEF UK 2018
        • ISRHML 2016 - South Africa
        • ISRHML 2018 - Japan
        • MAINN 2019
        • NARHC 2019
        • ABM 2019
      • Upcoming International Conferences
  • News
    • News from CHEER
    • News from the Field
  • Resources
    • IYCFE Resources
    • Breastfeeding/Baby-Friendly Resources >
      • Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative
      • Current Research
      • Useful Websites
      • Policy Statements & Position Papers
      • Training for Healthcare Professionals
      • Patient Education Materials
      • Breastfeeding in the Workplace
      • Breastfeeding in Scripture
      • Breastfeeding and the Law
    • Our Publications
  • Champions

CHEER Hospital of the week: chickasaw nation medical center!

5/29/2017

Comments

 
Picture
​Congratulations to Chickasaw Nation Medical Center in Ada, Oklahoma, on achieving Baby-Friendly designation! Congratulations to Lisa Eddings, BS, RN and Kathy Gilchrist, BS, RNC-OB, IBCLC, who have hung in there through thick and thin and are models in patience and persistence. CHAMPS has been proud to know and assist you on this journey!
 
“It feels like I just gave birth,” shares Kathy, Lactation Counselor/Educator and CHAMPS Team Lead. “It’s a big relief because it was a long time coming. We’re excited about it. We’re still going to have to do improvements every year, so we will carry on as usual.”
 
Chickasaw’s Baby-Friendly journey began about 5 years ago when Lisa and Kathy attended a “Becoming Baby-Friendly in Oklahoma” conference and signed up to become Baby-Friendly. From there, the changes began. For example, instead of having separate nurses care for babies and mothers, they began practicing couplet care. And instead of separating babies from their mothers for up to 2 hours for the admission process, the nurses started coming to the delivery rooms to admit babies.
 
“That was a big challenge—” Kathy says, “getting people out of their comfort zone, changing the way they do things.”
 
In addition to coordinating the Baby-Friendly committee, Kathy developed education for the Women’s Clinic and a Baby-Friendly template for their electronic charting system. Kathy has also created a Baby-Friendly skills lab, a mandatory 2- or 3-day training held every year.
 
Kathy, who has worked at Chickasaw for 18 years and became a lactation consultant in 2015, feels like it would be “withholding medical care” to not promote breastfeeding with her patients. She says it is especially important for communities such as Chickasaw Nation since it decreases the risk of certain diseases prevalent among American Indians such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. 
 
Chickasaw Nation Medical Center is now the 3rd American Indian Baby-Friendly hospital in Oklahoma. Claremore IHS, a federally operated site, was the 1st Baby-Friendly hospital in Oklahoma, and now there are 2 tribal sites—Cherokee Nation and Chickasaw Nation. All 13 federal IHS hospitals were designated between 2012 and 2014, and now, 4 out of 5 tribally operated hospitals in the lower 48 are designated as well. This is an incredible record!
 
Kathy says, “I could not have done any of it without the help of everyone on the Baby-Friendly Committee, especially Lisa Eddings, OB Educator and Assistant Manager. Lisa’s been here the whole time, originally started it, and always supported me. Without her I couldn’t have gotten anywhere. Carey Terrell has been the OB Unit Manager for the last year and she has been a great help. And our CHAMPS helper Kristen Krane—she helped tremendously by keeping me on track always checking to make sure everything was in order. Our OB Unit really experienced a change in culture. There have been adjustments and we continue to adapt and implement best practice in our patient care. As a whole, all of our staff and Women’s Clinic have placed focus on providing family-centered care because we recognize this is the best way to get life started.”

Comments

    CHEER Champion of the week

    Each week, we will recognize a CHEER Champion for all the work they have done for CHEER (Center for Health Equity, Education, and Research)/CHAMPS (Communities and Hospitals Advancing Maternity Practices). 

    Archives

    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

© Center for Health Equity, Education, & Research
Boston Medical Center
​
88 E. Newton St., Vose 315, Boston, MA 02118
Phone: (617) 414.6466
  • Home
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Our History
    • Our Team
    • Contact Us
    • Support Our Work
  • CHAMPS
    • Mississippi CHAMPS
    • AI/AN CHAMPS
    • CHAMPS South
    • Trainings, Webinars & Conferences
    • Breastfeeding IPE
    • Sustainability
    • Become a CHAMPS Hospital
  • AI/AN Health
    • AI/AN CHAMPS
    • MSPI/DVPI Technical Assistance
    • CHAs and CHIPs >
      • Blackfeet Community Health Assessment
      • Northern Cheyenne Community Health Assessment
      • Rocky Boy's Community Health Assessment
      • Blackfeet Community Health Improvement Plan
    • Indigenous Breastfeeding Counselor Course
    • Drug Use Prevention >
      • Drug Use Prevention Blackfeet
      • Healthy Mothers, Healthy Tribe Initiative
  • CHEER International
    • CHEERing: CHEER International - Greece >
      • CHEER Greece: Refugees >
        • Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies
        • Infant Feeding Data in Athens
        • Camp Mapping
    • International Conferences >
      • Past International Conferences >
        • Galaxias and IBFAN Greece 12th Breastfeeding Conference
        • Greece - Postgraduate Seminar 2018
        • Greece - 13th Breastfeeding Seminar 2018
        • UNICEF UK 2018
        • ISRHML 2016 - South Africa
        • ISRHML 2018 - Japan
        • MAINN 2019
        • NARHC 2019
        • ABM 2019
      • Upcoming International Conferences
  • News
    • News from CHEER
    • News from the Field
  • Resources
    • IYCFE Resources
    • Breastfeeding/Baby-Friendly Resources >
      • Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative
      • Current Research
      • Useful Websites
      • Policy Statements & Position Papers
      • Training for Healthcare Professionals
      • Patient Education Materials
      • Breastfeeding in the Workplace
      • Breastfeeding in Scripture
      • Breastfeeding and the Law
    • Our Publications
  • Champions