02/02/2017
An opportunity to make a difference: Help that all breastfeeding families in Massachusetts have access to clinical Lactation Consultant care
Please call your state representatives today and ask them to cosponsor bill
HD 1254: An Act regulating the Practice and Licensure of Lactation consultants. It takes only 2 minutes, but can make a huge difference. If possible call before February 4!!
1. call your state representatives:if you do not know them, you can find their names here
https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator
2. Tell the person who answers the phone that you are a constituent, and you would like the representative to cosponsor bill HD 1254: An Act regulating the Practice and Licensure of Lactation consultants
3. If you want, you can tell them more about what difference access to a lactation visit made for you, or read from the attached fact sheet or bring in other reasons you think this is a good idea
4. The person on the other line likely will ask you for you address and email.
This bill can make a longterm and far reaching difference in the health of families in Massachusetts.
More info here
Improvement of breastfeeding rates and duration is one of the health objectives contained in the Healthy People 2020 nationwide health promotion and disease prevention agenda. To receive Title V funding for state maternal and child health programs, improved breastfeeding rates is a performance measure that must be demonstrated each year. To meet these federal and state health goals, mothers and infants must receive timely, safe, evidence-based support delivered by a health professional workforce trained and qualified to do so. Physicians, nurses, dietitians, and other licensed health care providers receive little education in lactation care and management in their formal training. The lactation consultant is an allied health professional whose sole practice is the delivery of lactation care and services.
As with all licensing, this act is designed to protect the public. This legislation is inclusive, in that it recognizes a range of diverse providers of lactation care and services by exempting several types of providers from licensure, thereby ensuring maximum access for consumers to providers of their choice.
This act would:
1. Specify that the registered lactation consultant with the IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant) credential is licensed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to provide lactation care and services.
2. Contribute to an interdisciplinary health profession workforce that assures all segments of the population access to quality health care professionals providing appropriate health care services.
3. Assure that those persons delivering lactation care and services with the designation IBCLC, have been trained, undergone an accredited examination, and conform to standards designed for patient safety.
4. Define the lactation consultant as part of the health care team working together with the primary health care provider for optimal health care delivery.
Why it is important:
1. Breastfeeding mothers require access to health professionals with appropriate educational preparation and training, clinical skills, and availability to initiate and maintain lactation under a variety of normal and adverse health conditions.
2. Lactation consulting is a highly specialized skill requiring extensive specialized training whose utilization demonstrates significant positive health outcomes.
3. Breastfeeding reduces the risk and incidence of diseases and conditions such as asthma, diabetes, allergy, overweight, obesity, reproductive cancers, and autoimmune diseases.
4. Nationwide, third party payers expend billions of dollars for acute and chronic diseases and conditions preventable or reduced by breastfeeding.
Contact: Mary Ann Hart, Project Licensure, Hart Government Relations, 617-797-8488,
maryann.hart@hartgovrelations.com
There can be multiple legislators for a single ZIP code because of how the districts are organized. For your exact legislators,
