Breastfeeding Workgroup (BFWG)

Building Public-Private Collaboration to Increase Breastfeeding Success

Hawai‘i’s Statewide Breastfeeding Workgroup (BFWG) is engaging diverse stakeholders like subject matter experts and practitioners to increase promotion and coordination of breastfeeding support statewide. Collaborations with public and private partners increases our leverage for capacity building and advocacy.

The Breastfeeding Workgroup is a subgroup of ECAS Team 1 - Healthy and Welcomed Births.

Dedicated breastfeeding coordination efforts are pivotal to Hawai‘i’s systems planning because breastfeeding support and measurement fall to such diverse stakeholders across the systems of healthcare, food security, childcare, and emergency preparedness.

Key efforts

• Reinvigorated strategic planning efforts to prioritize breastfeeding promotion and research across systems and partners

  • Increasing Access to Breastfeeding Supports

  • Supporting Workforce Development

  • Advancing Breastfeeding Policies and Equity

  • Providing Backbone Support

WHAT WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED in 2025

• Convened stakeholders for collective impact

• Catalyzed research efforts focused on infant feeding

• Enhanced support for breastfeeding throughout the WIC Program

• Uplifted WIC leadership and staff to advance breastfeeding training and activities

• Successfully engaged insurers and lactation providers to establish effective systems of payment for clinical lactation care

• Increased training, mentorship, and workforce development across the continuum of breastfeeding support

• Strengthened alignment between Breastfeeding Workgroup (BFWG) efforts and Breastfeeding Hawaiʻi (BFH)

Resources