St. Vincent Services Women's Health Having A Baby Breastfeeding Services

Breastfeeding Services

HSHS values breastfeeding as the best and safest way to feed your baby. With lactation services and the only hospital with a breast milk depot and dispensary in Eastern Wisconsin, HSHS St. Vincent Hospital is dedicated to providing you with the support you need to successfully breastfeed your precious newborn.

Breastfeeding Support

HSHS values breastfeeding as the best and safest way to feed your baby. To support you and your family, our experienced team of nurses and lactation specialists are available to you in the hospital and breastfeeding support is available by phone or appointment after you go home.

As a baby-friendly hospital, we use the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes to give mothers the information, confidence, and skills they need to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding or formula-feed safely.

Regardless of the method you choose to feed your baby, you will be allowed time, privacy and support to achieve the goals you set for yourself and your little one.

Milk Depot and Dispensary

We're proud to offer a local milk depot and dispensary in Green Bay. As the only dispensary in Northeast Wisconsin, and the third dispensary in the state, we’re part of a network of breast milk dispensaries dedicated to increasing access to donor milk throughout our communities – so you can safely donate and buy local breast milk from an accredited milk bank.

We partner with Mothers’ Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes to ensure the safety of pasteurized breast milk through screening, processing, and dispensing guidelines established by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA).

For more information on the HSHS St. Vincent Hospital milk depot and dispensary, click here.

Classes

While in person breastfeeding classes are still on hold, HSHS St. Vincent Hospital Women and Infants Center is committed to helping new moms with breastfeeding support to help you get off to a great start. We have an online breastfeeding class, and virtual breastfeeding presentations may be available at certain times of the year in partnership with Prevea Health.

Click here to sign up for the online breastfeeding class and for a schedule of upcoming virtual presentations.

The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding:

Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.
Train all health care staff in the skills necessary to implement this policy.
Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth.
Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are separated from their infants.
Give infants no food or drink other than breast-milk, unless medically indicated.
Practice rooming in - allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.
Encourage breastfeeding on demand.
Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants.
Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or birth center.