Jefferson County’s breastfeeding mothers got to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week on Aug. 7 with Jefferson County Public Health’s Women, Infants and Children program, Mothers Milk Bank and the Baby Café.

The event took place at the Belmar Library in Lakewood, where an activity room in the back of the library was filled with gifts for the mothers, rocking chairs for giveaway, free breastfeeding support clothing and space for the babies to play in.

This is not the first meeting for the mothers, Mother’s Milk Bank or Jeffco Public Health. They all come together weekly for a support group called Baby Café. The group meets every Monday at the Belmar Library.

WIC Lactation Program Supervisor Kelsie Revera explained that the group is part of a network of breastfeeding support groups licensed by Baby Café and facilitated by Mother’s Milk Bank.

The Baby Café at Belmar Library is the only one run by Jeffco Public Health. According to Rivera, the Baby Café licensing ensures quality and also connects the Jeffco group to a larger network. This means options for breastfeeding families.

“(Baby Café) is a more recognizable group. Everything is kind of run a similar way,” Rivera said. “And so, families will know what to expect if they bounce around to different Baby Café groups. They just know what to expect. It's beautiful.”

Mother’s Milk Bank, based in Arvada, facilitates several groups in the Denver Metro area. It is a program of the Rocky Mountain Children’s Hospital Foundation. According to its website, the organization is a nonprofit and has become one of the largest nonprofit milk banks in North America. It distributes about 700,000 ounces of donor milk each year. About 80-90 percent of that donor milk goes to neonatal care units across the U.S.

Gregory Lenna Gregory, donor relations and outreach manager, said that Baby Café is a feeding support group, which is why it has lactation specialists present and available at every meeting. It’s a part of the standard for groups everywhere.

“Baby Café is always going to be supervised by a certified lactation consultant,” Gregory said. She added that everyone present has been to lactation training — even the Jeffco WIC consultants who are always present.

“So, it's not just facilitating peer-to-peer support between the parents," Gregory said. "But the people facilitating the group are trained breastfeeding professionals.”

Some of the Jeffco WIC lactation consultants present are also bilingual. It is a much-needed feature of the Jeffco Baby Café for a few reasons, according to Jacqueline Morales, breastfeeding peer counselor for Jeffco WIC. She explained that there is a language barrier that often causes moms who do not speak English to give up on breastfeeding prematurely.

Morales added that the bilingual services let moms get the help they need when struggling with breastfeeding.

“So, for them to have somebody to talk to is extremely important,” Morales said. “Sometimes I don't have the answer. And I'll ask one of (the other lactation consultants). Even somebody who doesn't speak Spanish at all. I’ll ask them their opinion or how they would say something and then we'll come back to the family.”

Moreles helped translate a mom’s comments to the Jeffco Transcript about breastfeeding.

Lady Winston and her baby are regulars in the group. She explained why she needed the support.

“The first couple of days, it was very hard to know if the baby was getting enough milk,” Winston said. But she explained that she learned how to listen to her body to get cues to understand the baby’s feeding.

“As time went by, my breasts were telling me they were full. So, I was able to nurse the baby. Now, I know that the baby is getting enough,” she said.

WIC Lactation Consultant Andrea Perez also speaks Spanish and helps moms who do not speak English as their first language. She said the service is vital to Latina moms.

Spanish-speaking mothers need communication and support like English-speaking moms because breastfeeding is tough in the first few months, Perez added.

“If there's that language barrier, then it's going to be very hard for them to continue to breastfeed for three months or longer," Perez said. "So, then we provide this service, and we could help them achieve that goal and explain to them the breastfeeding and support.”

The mothers in the group later talked about support outside the group— from family and friends.

“Just like offering a quiet place to go especially when (the baby) gets to that kind of stage where they are so easily distracted,” said Cloe Brooks.

Brooks was the first winner of the rocking chairs that the Jeffco Baby Café was giving away.

Another mother, Yarely Reyes said that breastfeeding can be isolating so a little company is helpful.

“Most of the time you don’t get anyone to talk to," she said. "So, they could do that.”

The mothers, lactation consultants and others present all agreed that there needs to be more spotlight on breastfeeding. That’s why they were celebrating World Breastfeeding Week, which is the first week of August each year. The U.S. also recognizes August as National Breastfeeding Month.

Gregory wants everyone to know that breastfeeding support is family support.

“Yes, we have breastfeeding information, but we're really open to whatever is working for your family," Gregory said. "We want to make sure that everybody gets what they need.”