HJAR Jul/Aug 2022

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS  I  JUL / AUG 2022 47 control group and an intervention group. The intervention group will participate in three one-hour, in-person classes — pre- sented by a Spanish-speaking certified lactation counselor. The first class will teach participants about the benefits of breastfeeding, appropriate latching, what a normal milk supply looks like, and ex- actly how much milk babies truly need. In the second class, study participants will receive breast pump equipment and instructions on how to pump, equipment for breast milk storage, and instructions for thawing and warming. The third class is focused on family support. Mothers will bring their partners or another adult fam- ily member to learn how families can best assist and encourage moms who want to breastfeed. Participants will also receive sixmonths of post-natal support in Spanish in the form of phone calls to follow up on their breastfeeding progress. They will also come into the Arkansas Children’s Breast- feeding and Lactation Clinic for in-person support. The goal is to improve the initiation and exclusivity of breastfeeding in these moms with the hope that they do not feel the need to supplement with formula when it is not medically necessary. The study, also known as “La Leche Ma- terna es Eterna,” will recruit and actively enroll participants this summer. The Future of Breastfeeding Research One of the primary goals of the Arkan- sas Children’s Nutrition Center and the Breastfeeding and Lactation Clinic at Ar- kansas Children’s is to improve infant and maternal health. We hope to expand our breastfeeding and human milk research in the future to focus on antenatal colostrum Sarah Sobik, MD Outpatient Breastfeeding Medicine Specialist Arkansas Children’s expression and delayed lactogenesis II to improve rates of breastfeeding in moth- ers with obesity. We also hope to focus on how proper hydration, diet, and nutri- tion for lactating mothers may modulate breastmilk composition and volume. n REFERENCES 1 Oyarzun, M.F.; Barja, S.; Dominguez, M.A.; et al. “Breastfeeding, obesity and metabolic syndrome at school age.” Revista Chilena de Pediatría 89, no.2 (April 2018): 173-181. doi:10.4067/S0370- 41062018000200173 2 Santacruz-Salas, E.; Segura-Fragoso, A.; Pozue- lo-Carrascosa, D.P.; et al. “Maintenance of Ma- ternal Breastfeeding up to 6 Months: Predictive Models.” Journal of Personalized Medicine 11, no.5 (May 11, 2021): 396. 3 Huo, Y.; Cheng, L; Wang, C.; et al. “Associations between parity, pregnancy loss, and breastfeed- ing duration and risk of maternal type 2 diabetes: An observational cohort study. Journal of Diabe- tes 13, no.11 (Nov. 2021): 857-867. 4 Eidelman, A.I.; Schanler, R.J.; Johnston, M.; et al. “Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk.” Pedi- atrics 129, no.3 (March 1, 2012): 827-841. 5 Besore, C.T. “Barriers to breastfeeding for Hispanic mothers.” Breastfeeding Medicine 9, no.7 (Sept. 2014): 352-354. doi:10.1089/ bfm.2014.0090 6 Bigman, G.; Wilkinson, A.V.; Homedes, N.; Pe- rez, A. “Body Image Dissatisfaction, Obesity and Their Associations with Breastfeeding in Mexican Women, a Cross-Sectional Study.” Maternal and Child Health Journal 22, no.12 (Dec. 2018): 1815- 1825. doi:10.1007/s10995-018-2583-1 Sarah Sobik,MD,graduatedmedical school from the University ofArkansas for Medical Sciences in 2016. She completed a residency in pediatrics at UAMS and Arkansas Children’s,after which she joined as faculty in the Section of Community Pediatrics at UAMS and as a research collaborator at theArkansas Children’s Nutrition Center. Sobik set out to re-establish the Breastfeeding Medicine Clinic at Arkansas Children’s and received International Board Certified Lactation Consultant certification in spring of 2021. She has striven to ex- pand her clinical skills and offer lactation services in the primary care clinics to newborns and lactating mothers in Central Arkansas and other parts of the state that have limited lactation services through tele- medicine.She has focused her research on improving breastfeeding rates in the clinic setting, specifically to at-risk populations,humanmilk composition,and early nutritional programming on breastmilk compo- sition. Sobik’s clinical work and research focus is to improve health outcomes and nutrition for infants and their mothers from the start and to improve breastfeeding support for all infant-mother pairs in the state of Arkansas. acculturation to the United States. 5, 6 Many Hispanic and Latino families ei- ther recently immigrated to the United States or are first- or second-generation immigrants who often experienced food and formula insecurity in their homelands, making breastfeeding the only choice for feeding their children. We ask patients, “Why do you feel like your baby needs formula,” and they typi- cally say that they don’t feel like they have enough milk, or they plan to go back to work and want to make sure the baby will take a bottle of formula as well. We hope our study will help educate breastfeeding mothers on what is normal breastmilk supply and what are normal feeding hab- its for a breastfed baby, which may then improve confidence and exclusive breast- feeding rates in this population. Providing education in their native language may help break down some of the barriers they face when trying to breastfeed. Reducing Elective Formula Feeding among the Hispanic and Latino Pop- ulation After recognizing the problems elec- tive formula feeding was causing in our patients, we began providing lactation and breastfeeding support to help moth- ers understand that they don’t necessari- ly need formula. Unfortunately, because there is a lack of prenatal and post-natal support specifically designed for a Span- ish-speaking population, the transition has been difficult. To create a solution, we applied for a grant last summer through the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute to develop a curriculum geared toward bilingual or Spanish-speaking mothers interested in breastfeeding. Study participants will consist of a