training for healthcare professionals
Successful breastfeeding is a job for more than just the mother. These trainings inform healthcare professionals on ways to support mothers in making educated decisions for their infants and themselves. Also check out our CHAMPS Breastfeeding Skills Competency Training page for upcoming hands-on training available at no cost for CHAMPS hospitals and community partners.

online 15 hr courses in breastfeeding management

Lactation Education Resources (LER) and Step 2 Education both have online courses available that fulfill the Baby-Friendly USA didactic training requirements.  Click the buttons below to explore each curriculum to find out if either course is a good fit for the staff at your facility.  

ONLINE 3 HR BABY-FRIENDLY COURSES FOR PROVIDERS

Community Health Training Institute Training

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In 2013-14, as part of a CDC-funded grant, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health collaborated with the Massachusetts chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Northeastern University to develop three hours of continuing professional education related to breastfeeding. Two 1.5 hour courses were developed and made available in 2013 free of charge for clinicians. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health provides support for maintaining the tutorials through Health Resources in Action’s Community Health Training Institute.

The tutorials were developed in collaboration with faculty and clinicians from the Massachusetts Institute of Health Professions, Partners Healthcare, Boston, MA, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, and Beth Israel Deaconess, Plymouth, MA in addition to those from Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Massachusetts chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Hallmark Health System, Melrose, MA, and Northeastern University, Boston, MA. The tutorials have been reviewed by the Chair of the Section on Breastfeeding, American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Committee. Over 11,000 physicians and nurses have completed the tutorials for credit. 

Hallmark Health System in Melrose, MA provides the CME has been approved for 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM for physicians and 1.5 American Nurses Credentialing Center CNE contact hours for Registered Nurses. Credit for the tutorials was renewed in 2016 and is now available until June 30, 2019. 
​The Community Health Training Institute provides two 1.5-hour online tutorials, which together provide 3 hours of breastfeeding education that aligns with the content expected for physicians providing care in Baby-Friendly Hospital facilities.
If you have any questions about the operations of the Community Health Training Institute website, please contact bfcme@hria.org.  
If you are having other issues (e.g. trouble printing a CME certificate), please contact Daisy Ortega dortega@hria.org. ​

Open Pediatrics Bella Breastfeeding: Provider Training

​Bella Breastfeeding: Provider Training is a peer-reviewed online course on OPENPediatrics, a free web-based digital learning platform designed for health care professionals around the world. The purpose of this course is to fulfill the requirement for provider education as outlined in the Baby-Friendly USA Guideline and Evaluation Criteria manual. Three hours of training are required for providers (Physicians, Midwives, Physician Assistants and Adv. Practice Registered Nurses.)
 
At the end of this course, the learner will have a true understanding of:
  • Benefits of exclusive breastfeeding;
  • Physiology of lactation;
  • How the provider’s specific field of practice impacts lactation;
  • How to find safe medications for use during lactation; and
  • Who the provider can refer a mother to for help.
 
The course is comprised of 15 short learning modules, each with a several question pre-test and post-test. At the end of the course, and if a score of >80% on the test questions is achieved, the learner can print out a certificate of completion. The course can be found at: www.openpediatrics.org. Learners will first need to register with OPENPediatrics and then can search “bella” or  “breastfeeding.”
 
The modules include:
1.     Introduction
2.     Background 1: Goals, Rates, History
3.     Background 2: The Joint Commission and mPINC Survey
4.     The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative
5.     The International Code of Breast Milk Substitutes (the Code)
6.     Prenatal Education
7.     Skin-to-Skin Holding
8.     Safety
9.     Rooming-In
10. Anatomy and Physiology of Lactation
11. Positioning and Latch
12. Hand Expression
13. Potpourri: Exclusivity, Training, NICU, and Pacifiers
14. Medications and Breast Milk
15. Twenty-Five Questions to Test Your Knowledge
 
Thanks to the support of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the course is free.
For physicians looking for continuing education credits, three CME credits have been applied for and approval is pending. When CME’s do become available, they will cost $25 per credit or $75 total for the course. However, it will not be possible to receive retroactive CMEs.
 
Bella Breastfeeding: Provider Training, created by Barbara L. Philipp, MD, FAAP, FABM and Mary Foley, RN, IBCLC, launched on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2018.

Becoming Baby Friendly - Overview for Hospital Staff

Lactation Education Resources produced a 30 minute video called "Becoming Baby-Friendly" that can be used to introduce ancillary hospital staff to basic information about Baby-Friendly.   

breastfeeding residency curriculum

The American Academy of Pediatrics created a website designed to help residency program directors and faculty integrate breastfeeding education into existing curriculum. The curriculum was organized based on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Core Competencies. Click here to access their comprehensive evidence-based tools and resources!