HealthConnect One - Chicago

HealthConnect One is committed to collaborating with Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities to ensure safe and healthy pregnancies and births, thriving babies and families, and successful early parenting and nutrition. Since 1986, HC One has worked with maternal-child health (MCH) organizations, hospitals, and grassroots organizers to co-design community-based, peer-to-peer support programs for birthing families. Our work began in Chicago to develop a peer-to-peer breastfeeding support model explicitly designed to support communities of color with high disparities. The significant results of our early work led to the replication of programs across the country. Breastfeeding Peer Counselors (BPCs), who come from the same community and have successfully breastfed their babies, work with new and expectant mothers to provide culturally appropriate information and support that promotes successful breastfeeding. BPCs provide peer-to-peer support during pregnancy, in the immediate postpartum period, and throughout the first year to help mothers make informed and confident choices about breastfeeding, thereby increasing breastfeeding initiation, duration, and exclusivity. In a Chicago-area longitudinal study conducted from 2001-2011, breastfeeding initiation rates increased by 62% at HC One trained BPC programs. HC One plans to conduct a nationwide study from 2021 to 2023 of 20 new training sites, evaluating training and technical assistance and breastfeeding rates for families supported by the new training sites.