The Many Layers of Influence on Breastfeeding

This website is modeled after the Breastfeeding Coalition of Oregon’s website. Just like the BCO, we organized our website in terms of the audience seeking information and subject matter.

The Social Ecological Framework recognizes that individuals make health decisions in the context of many layers of influential relationships and information.

On a local and statewide level, the LBC aims to effect all spheres of influence that surround a breastfeeding family, so that together we experience a culture where breastfeeding is the norm.

The diagram below demonstrates the many layers of influence on breastfeeding that exist:

• Mothers and their families
• Communities
• Health Care
• Employers
• Research
• Public Health Infrastructure

The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding provides detailed action steps that can be taken by families, communities, hospitals, health care providers, employers and government to remove some of the many obstacles faced by women who want to breastfeed their babies.

Image from Larry Grummer-Strawn, PhD: CDC-USBC Bi-Monthly Teleconferences, Tuesday, February 8, 2011.