Lactation Support Program
- Introduction
- Assessing Need and Interest
- Planning
- Implementation
- Maintenance
- Evaluation
Evaluation
Formal evaluation of a lactation support program (LSP) is an ongoing activity that is needed to ensure the continued success of the LSP and to identify areas for improvement. Stakeholder input is important in this phase as it can help identify the types of information valued by the users and supporters of your project. Consider evaluating each component of the LSP as well as the project as a whole.- Overall Evaluation
- Conducting the Policy Evaluation
- Evaluating the Breastfeeding Support Services
- Measuring Lactation Room Use
Overall
Evaluation
Over time, you would hope to see the proportion of new mothers in your
workplace who breastfeed increase, and the
length of time
which they breastfeed also increase. If you collect this data from health
risk appraisals, or organizational health survey, you can plot changes over
time.
For federal work sites (and possibly state), remember to consider Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) issues as appropriate at your agency, especially
if you are planning any kind of survey or formal data gathering from your
employees. Also if your LSP is part of a research study, you will need to
determine what types of Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals are
needed. Each organization should work with its own internal and legal staff
to develop appropriate guidelines and procedures for gathering employee
input.
Conducting
the Policy Evaluation
Evaluating the effect of a policy can provide valuable information about how well the policy was communicated and suggestions for future policy revisions or development. Here are some things to consider:
- Track the distribution of the policy. How was it communicated? If you have policies listed on your Intranet sites, track the number of hits on that page.
- Track questions or feedback about the policy. It might be valuable to be able to tell your management that “X” number of women have expressed appreciation for the program.
Evaluating the
Breastfeeding Support Services
Evaluating these services is similar to evaluating any other health
education program at the work site, with the exception that it is reasonable
that participants will be cycling in and out of the program. Some ideas to
consider are—
- Track numbers of employees who attend classes and sign up for more information.
- Track number of pumps lent out or pump kits distributed, if applicable.
- Track number of IBCLC consultations, if that is a benefit your work site offers.
- Track number of members of breastfeeding discussion/support groups, if developed. It might also be worthwhile to track qualitative changes in the group discussion (if it can be done maintaining confidentiality) to see how discussions of workplace issues change over time.
- Track Return-to-Work consultations. If you or your department doesn’t provide these consultations, you might consider auditing what is covered, to make sure it reflects up-to-date information about your workplace’s program.
Measuring
Lactation Room Use
Since this can be the most challenging part of developing a comprehensive program, it is very important to track use of the lactation rooms. Because of the “closed door” nature of these rooms, it can appear to those outside the program that the room isn’t being used, and could possibly be put to a better use some other way.
- Track number of uses of the room. One way to do this is to have a counter on the door. Otherwise, you could put a simple sign-in sheet in the room and counsel the women who use the room to record each use that way. To assist with compliance, be sure you explain to employees why this information is needed.
- Track supplies used for the room. This might also give you an idea of room use.
Next Steps
After you have conducted the initial evaluation of your LSP, consider periodic evaluations to ensure its ongoing success and identify potential areas for improvement.
Other Helpful Information
- HWI’s Evaluation Information
- Office of Management and Budget Regulations
- Information on door counting systems
Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.
* Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.
Page last updated: May 22, 2007
Content Source: Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
