Abstract Book of the 4th World Conference on Gender Equality
Year: 2026
[PDF]
Baby Café: An Effective Model for Locally Created Breastfeeding Support
Lisa Miller, Liat Shklarski, Lucia Jenkins, Paige Hall-Smith
ABSTRACT:
Breastfeeding is both a health behavior and a social behavior, shaped by individual motivation and the environments where women live and work. Globally only a minority of women meet recommended breastfeeding goals. For breastfeeding to be compatible with women’s work, family and community lives they need accessible, affordable and quality lactation care and support. Baby Café is an evidence-based model offering free, drop-in clinical and peer support in welcoming community spaces. In 2024, 140+ Baby Cafés in the US served diverse families with over 40,000 visits.
This 2024 program review examined breastfeeding behaviors, personal goals, and outcomes among attendees to understand how community-based lactation care supports women’s ability to sustain breastfeeding according to their personal goals while engaging in work and personal life.
Registration and attendance data were collected using QR-codes. Follow-up responses were received via email or text. Follow up responses from two timepoints were combined to calculate average metrics.
1,362 attendees completed the 6-month survey and 660 completed the 12-month survey. More than 70% reported they were currently working or planned to return to work while breastfeeding. The average planned breastfeeding goal was 13 months; 87% were breastfeeding at 6 months (59% exclusively) and 64% were breastfeeding at 12 months. About half attended Baby Café five or more times. Interestingly, 38% indicated that social support was their primary reason for attending. When asked if attendance helped them solve their breastfeeding problem, 79% indicated that Baby Café helped them solve their problem; 12% reported coming even though they never had a problem.
Baby Cafés effectively support people in achieving their breastfeeding goals through accessible, locally created community care. Although many attendees come for expert clinical help, others come primarily for social support. Program outcomes exceeded national breastfeeding recommendations, demonstrating Baby Café’s role in enabling women to fully participate in work, education, and community life while sustaining breastfeeding according to their personal goals. This presentation will discuss study results and the program model, with a focus on how the model can be implemented in diverse community settings, including those with limited lactation resources.
Keywords: Breastfeeding and Work, Women’s Economic Participation, Lactation Support Access, Community-Based Lactation Support