Spotlight: Iredell County Partnership for Children Lactation Station
The North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC) was honored to receive a $10,000 grand prize from Aeroflow Breastpumps as part of their Pumping Room Makeover Contest. This generous award enabled NCPC to remodel its lactation room, providing enhanced equipment and resources to support breastfeeding employees. Following this renovation, NCPC extended the opportunity to select Smart Start Local Partnerships, assisting them in upgrading their own lactation spaces to better serve their staff. Iredell County Partnership for Children is spotlighted below!
Iredell County Partnership for Young Children believes in creating spaces where children, families, early childhood educators, and employees feel welcome and supported. In an effort to support overstimulated children and families, we had a vision of creating a room called a Regulation Station.
The Vision:
The vision was for this space to be designed with low lighting, soothing colors, and materials to support social/emotional regulation. Within this room, we also wanted a space that would offer a sanctuary for nursing moms. We envisioned including a large comfy chair and nursing materials that would aid moms during nursing.
The Result:
While we already had the framework for the room, the lactation award money allowed us to bring this vision to life by adding materials to make the space comfortable and inviting. We were able to add a low table for mothers to place their breast pumps, reusable nursing pads, Boppy Pillows with washable covers to aid in nursing. These materials support our employees who are nursing while working, along with the families that come in for support. In our employee kitchen, we added cooling/heating packs for nursing employees as well as sanitation bags where breast pump parts can be cleaned and sanitized. The lactation award money provided our Partnership an opportunity to enhance our space for lactating mom.
The funding we received has allowed us to support families and employees during their breastfeeding journey with needed items as well as open doors for conversations about what support looks like for nursing mothers. We have included before and after pictures below.
