What Mamas & Milk is Doing to Protect you and your Family During COVID-19

In a time of social distancing and quarantines, we here at Mamas & Milk are continuing to keep your health and your family’s health, and our own health and safety our top priority. While that means that some offerings are shifting, we are doing what we can to help you to feed your baby and continue on your parenting journey with support and solidarity. Our regular protocols are in full effect, along with some additional measures to reflect the current CDC guidelines. Here is what you can expect for the next few weeks:

Yoga Classes and Support Groups

  1. Yoga Classes are either cancelled or will be offered virtually. Dawn is working hard, preparing to offer both Prenatal Yoga and Yoga,with Babies classes virtually. She may even do some videos that you can watch at your leisure! Please visit our website for an updated calendar, they will be posted soon.

  2. We are partnering with several local lactation consultants to offer virtual breastfeeding support groups through Google Hangouts Meet.  Here is the schedule (starting on Wed March 18):

    1. Monday: 12p-1p (hosted by Rachelle Markham)

    2. Tuesday: 12p-1p (hosted by Dawn Dickerson)

    3. Wednesday: 12p-1p (hosted by Robin Kaplan)

    4. Thursday: 12p-1p (hosted by Rachael Oeffner)

    5. Friday: 12p-1p (hosted by Ashley Tehrani)

To attend one of our virtual breastfeeding support groups, please go to our calendar for details and a link to each daily virtual support group. We will also make an announcement with all of the details on our Facebook and Instagram, as well.

In-Person Lactation Consultations

Prior to the visit

  1. We screen all of our patients a day before the visit via text. In case of a confirmation of possible symptoms of a respiratory infection, a virtual visit will be offered instead via a HIPAA-compliant telemedicine platform.

  2. We thoroughly clean and disinfect all our supplies using CDC-approved disinfectants before every visit. We also disinfect our phones/computers before and after each visit using alcohol wipes.

  3. We take our temperature every morning to make sure that we do not have a fever.  If we or someone in our household is sick, we will reschedule your appointment.

During the in-person visit

  1. Upon arrival, you will be asked screening questions before we begin the consultation.

  2. We always clean our hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.  

  3. Throughout the visit, we will use gloves every time we touch you and your baby. 

  4. When weighing your baby, we will use a disposable chux pad to place on the disinfected scale. You can use your own receiving blanket, if preferred.

  5. We ask that you bring your own breastfeeding pillows, if you are using one.  We will not have pillows to use in our office.

  6. We are staggering our office appointments so that no one will sit in the waiting room.

  7. We will minimize our physical contact with you and your baby throughout the consult, unless we are doing a physical/oral assessment

  8. For in-office consultations, we ask that you leave siblings at home, if at all possible.

  9. If we are seeing you in your own home, we ask that only household members are in the home during the consultation.

Virtual Consultations

Virtual consultations are a great option to uphold social distancing requirements. You can book them online through our website.  While we are unable to measure transfer and track weight gain, we can provide support virtually. We can offer visual assessment, work on milk supply issues, positioning and latch, and work together to create an individualized plan of care for you. We will also guide you through an oral assessment with your baby, so it can help to have a second set of adult hands.

photo by Don Delfin Espino

photo by Don Delfin Espino

Dawn Dickerson