​news from cheer

Norton SOUND REGIONAL HOSPITAL JOINS THE RANKS OF BABY-FRIENDLY DESIGNATED u.s. HOSPITALS!

December 20, 2019
Congratulations to Norton Sound Regional Hospital, Nome AK, on their Baby-Friendly designation! We applaud the team for their consistency and hard work since joining the AI/AN CHAMPS project in 2015. 

​Over 50% of Mississippi births are now in Baby-Friendly hospitals!

December 12, 2019
With today’s designation of both Methodist Olive Branch Hospital and Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, over 50% of Mississippi births now happen in Baby-Friendly hospitals. Olive Branch and Southwest are the latest of 5 MS CHAMPS hospitals to achieve Baby-Friendly status within the past 4 weeks. Mississippi now has 18 Baby-Friendly hospitals, with those 18 delivering over half the births in the state. Today’s designation also brings the total number of US Baby-Friendly hospitals to 600.
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Methodist Olive Branch Hospital, Olive Branch MS
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Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, McComb MS

MISSISSIPPI BAPTIST MEDICAL CENTER RECEIVES BABY-friendly designation!

December 16, 2019
Congratulations to Mississippi Baptist Medical Center on their Baby-Friendly designation! Since joining CHAMPS in 2018, the facility has worked diligently to progress through the pathway. We appreciate the Baptist Baby-Friendly team for their phenomenal work and commitment to becoming designated. 

baby-friendly ANNOUNCES MERIT HEALTH BILOXI's designation!

December 2, 2019
We are excited to announce that Merit Health Biloxi is officially Baby-Friendly designated! Since joining CHAMPS in 2017, they have worked diligently to achieve this goal, and we are happy to see it realized. Well done Biloxi! Thank you for your hard work to ensure evidence based quality maternity care for your patients. We hope you will take some time to celebrate this wonderful victory.

HIGHLAND COMMUNITY HOSPITAL IS BABY-FRIENDLY!

November 18, 2019
Congratulations to Highland Community Hospital on becoming officially Baby-Friendly Designated! This morning, the hospital received news that they have finally been awarded the designation, a goal that they have worked towards since joining CHAMPS in 2017. Thank you Highland team, for your hard work and diligence in bringing this to fruition, we are proud of you!

chEER presented at the 2019 abm conference

October 24, 2019
CHAMPS Community Engagement Director, Dr. Kimarie Bugg, and CHEER Medical Director, Dr. Lori Feldman-Winter  presented on Safe Implementation of Evidence-Based Maternity Practices at the 2019 Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) Conference. The conference was held in Manchester, UK from October 16-19, 2019. ​

ANDERSON REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER IS BABY-FRIENDLY DESIGNATED!

September 12, 2019 
We are happy to announce that CHAMPS hospital, Anderson Regional Medical Center, is officially Baby-Friendly Designated! On September 11, 2019, the hospital team received the news that they have worked towards since their 2015 CHAMPS enrollment. We would like to thank the hospital team and everyone who helped make this a reality. Congratulations on your sweet victory, Anderson Regional, we are proud of you!

For more information about the designation, visit the Baby-Friendly USA website using the button below. 
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A snapshot of the hospital's Facebook announcement

MERIT HEALTH MADISON HOSPITAL ANNOUNCES BABY-FRIENDLY DESIGNATION!

September 5, 2019
Congratulations to Merit Health Madison on their Baby-Friendly Designation! Merit Health Madison became an MS CHAMPS Hospital in 2017 and we are proud to see that all their hard work paid off. Thanks to the hospital team and everyone who contributed to making this a reality.
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For more information about the designation, visit the Baby-Friendly USA page using the button below.

cheer and the chippewa cree tribe finalize The Rocky Boy's Community Health Assessment

August 30, 2019
The Rocky Boy’s Community Health Assessment is officially complete!  A huge thank you to everyone involved in the process—from the survey participants, to the Rocky Boy Health Board and the Chippewa Cree Wellness Coalition, to the CHEER staff who worked on the project.  For more information, including a presentation on community priorities, please visit our CHA page using the button below.

CHEER FEATURED IN NEW ARTICLE from boston medical center

August 22, 2019
A new article published by Boston Medical Center focuses on the work of CHAMPS and CHEER!  The article discusses the history of the organization, and its influential role in supporting and expanding breastfeeding and the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative both nationally and internationally.
CHEERing WINS WABA SEED GRANT
August 5, 2019
WABA (the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy) has awarded a prestigious Seed Grant to CHEERing in World Breastfeeding Week, to further our work with refugees in Greece.

In sync with WBW’s goal of “Empower Parents, Enable Breastfeeding”, and a particular focus on fathers, CHEERing will use the funds to present sessions to engage refugee fathers in breastfeeding support and training at 3 refugee camps in Attika, and a maternity shelter in Athens.
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Sessions will take place in early fall 2019. Follow the CHEERing website for more developments!

CHAMPS LAUNCHES IPE WITH UMMC

June 21, 2019
CHAMPS will be launching a breastfeeding education module across all seven of the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s health professions schools thanks to a grant from the Bower Foundation. The Inter-Professional Education (IPE) unit on breastfeeding will contain video segments featuring real-life scenarios such as a prenatal clinic appointment, an in-hospital breastfeeding assessment, and a postpartum breastfeeding support group. The first IPE unit  is scheduled to be a part of the academic curriculum by fall 2020. ​

Alaska Native Medical Center Announces Baby-Friendly Designation

May 24, 2019
Congratulations to Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) for gaining Baby-Friendly Designation! CHEER worked with the facility starting with its enrollment in the AI/AN CHAMPS project.

For more information about ANMC, please visit their website using the button below.

CHEER Launches 'CHEER in Greece' (CHEERING)

April 23, 2019
CHEERing provides direct service every week at Skaramagas, Oinofyta, and Eleonas refugee camps, in collaboration with other non-profit organizations, and intensive support at the Provocando la Paz shelter in central Athens. Each week, CHEERing staff weighs, measures, and tracks growth in babies, and offers support to mothers of young infants. They also provide sessions for refugee women about breastfeeding, sexual health, nutrition, and infant development - and much more.

Community Health Systems Names CHAMPS Hospital Leads as Employees of the Year​

March 13, 2019
CHAMPS is delighted to announce that Rene Simpson, BSN, IBCLC, Lactation Coordinator, and Jean Dunn, RN, CLC, OB Educator Coordinator, the Baby-Friendly leads at Merit Health Woman's and Merit Health River Oaks hospitals, respectively, in Mississippi, have received great honors from their corporate-level employer, Community Health Systems (CHS).
​Each year, CHS, which operates 116 hospitals nationally in 18 states, awards one employee at each hospital their Employee of the Year title. This year, Rene Simpson won the award for Merit Woman's, and Jean Dunn, for Merit River Oaks.
Rene and Jean were responsible for leading the Baby-Friendly effort at each of their hospitals, both of which gained Baby-Friendly designation in 2018. Merit Wesley in Mississippi also gained designation in 2018. All three hospitals are part of the CHAMPS initiative in Mississippi.

“It was truly humbling to be awarded Employee of the Year for Merit Health Woman’s Hospital. I am so blessed to be recognized for doing something I love! Supporting our mothers and babies on their breastfeeding journey is my passion,” said Rene.

Merit Health also recently assigned Rene the role of working with the remaining five Merit hospitals to help them achieve Baby-Friendly designation. This represents a great personal achievement and recognition for Rene and Jean, and a serious commitment to changing maternity practices and seeking Baby-Friendly designation by CHS.

Overall, 11 Mississippi hospitals, 25% of all the state's hospitals, are now Baby-Friendly designated, up from 0 in 2014.

CHEER becomes national voting member of the US Breastfeeding Committee (USBC)

February 7, 2019
CHEER is happy to announce that it has recently been accepted as a national voting member of the USBC, a coalition of organizations around the country whose shared missions are to promote supportive breastfeeding policies and practices.

​To learn more about the USBC, please visit their website using the button below.
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​Improved Maternity Care Practices Decrease Racial Gaps in Breastfeeding in the U.S. South

January 18, 2019
​A new paper published in Pediatrics links successful implementation of Baby-Friendly™ practices in the southern U.S. with increases in breastfeeding rates and improved, evidence-based care. The changes were especially positive for African-American women.
Between 2014 and 2017, 33 hospitals enrolled into the CHAMPS (Communities and Hospitals Advancing Maternity Practices) program out of Boston Medical Center’s Center for Health Equity, Education and Research, funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. All birthing hospitals in Greater New Orleans, and 18 in Mississippi, signed up. Breastfeeding initiation at CHAMPS hospitals rose from 66% to 75%, and, among African Americans, from 43% to 63%, over the 3 years. The gap between White and Black breastfeeding rates decreased by 9.6%.
​“US breastfeeding rates differ by race,” says Anne Merewood, PhD MPH, a Boston Medical Center researcher and the lead author on the study. “This is the first study that links better compliance with the WHO’s Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding to lower racial inequities across a large number of hospitals.”

New CHAMPS Grant from the Bower Foundation!

January 1, 2019
CHEER has received a new, 3-year grant from the Bower Foundation to continue work with Baby-Friendly designated Mississippi hospitals.
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​CHEER (the Center for Health Equity, Education, and Research at Boston University School of Medicine) has run Mississippi CHAMPS since 2014, working with communities and hospitals to support, promote, and increase breastfeeding. The program also helps hospitals to gain the coveted WHO Baby-Friendly Hospital title. Since 2014, 8 Mississippi hospitals have been designated Baby-Friendly, and breastfeeding rates across CHAMPS-enrolled hospitals in Mississippi have risen from 49% to 67%. Rates have particularly increased among African American women, from 33% to 56%.
“This new grant will help us to work directly with Baby-Friendly designated hospitals in Mississippi, to help them ingrain the new policies and practices, and to support them with ongoing training and data collection,” said Anne Merewood PhD MPH, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at BUSM, and Director of CHEER and CHAMPS. “Also, it will help us to work across Mississippi to engage statewide support.”

​Already, CHAMPS has a working relationship with WIC, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi, and MSPQC (the Mississippi Perinatal Quality Collaborative).
Merit Health Wesley
UMMC Jackson
Baptist Memorial Hospital North Mississippi
South Sunflower Medical Center
Community level support is provided by ROSE (Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere), a national organization supporting breastfeeding among women of color. Many other breastfeeding initiatives have also gotten off the ground in Mississippi since 2014, including a milk bank, and the opening of many Baby Cafes™ where women in the community can get support.
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“This work is really supporting a more humane and evidence-based approach to maternal child health at the hospital level – it’s about much more than breastfeeding,” says Dr Merewood. “But sometimes it takes time for new policies and practices to become accepted and routine. This new grant will help Mississippi hospitals to establish Baby-Friendly practices as the norm.” 
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2018 CHEER Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Kimarie Bugg!

December 17, 2018
CHEER is thrilled to announce the recipient of our 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award: Kimarie Bugg, DNP, RN, MPH, IBCLC, CLC, for her long-standing dedication to breastfeeding and Maternal Child health equity! Kimarie is the Co-Founder, President/CEO, and Change Leader for Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE), a nonprofit developed in 2011 to address breastfeeding inequities in the African-American community. CHEER’s Communities and Hospitals Advancing Maternity Practices (CHAMPS) program has partnered with ROSE since its incipiency in 2014, and has the pleasure to host Kimarie as our Community Engagement Director. Throughout her career, Kimarie has tirelessly served families, trained health care providers, managed programs, advised national efforts, and led the charge for breastfeeding health equity amongst typically underserved communities in the United States. In this, her life exemplifies exactly the kind of work CHEER seeks to uphold! 
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CHEER and The Bower Foundation Partner

August 1, 2017
CHEER received a 3-year grant from The Bower Foundation to support Mississippi birthing hospitals in their journey to achieve Baby-Friendly designation. The  $497,998 award will be used to increase the number of MS hospitals in CHAMPS by providing:
  • Training
  • Paperwork assistance
  • Data collection expertise
  • Outreach
  • Education
  • And more
The project will begin on 08/01/2017 and run until 07/31/2020.

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