Your Baby, Your Choice
Courtney Carter
/ Categories: WELLNESS, 2024

Your Baby, Your Choice

Feeding options and support to help your baby thrive

A certified lactation consultant at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Kimberleigh Weiss-Lewit, MA, IBCLC, PMH-C says, “How a family chooses to feed their child is a personal choice that deserves to be respected and supported. The most important thing is ensuring the child is getting adequate nourishment. That may come in the form of breast milk, donor milk, formula, or a combination of the three. Every parent should learn about and carefully consider their options and make the choice that works best for them.”

With over 30 years of experience advising families on feeding options and practices, certified lactation consultant Bridget Bromirski, C-PNP, IBCLC in SVMC’s Women’s and Children’s Services Department encourages all parents-to-be to make full use of all resources available related to the care and feeding of their baby.

“There’s an expression ‘you don’t know what you don’t know.’ I think that applies particularly well to having a baby,” says Bromirski. “Throughout a pregnancy, parents should try to learn about all the resources available to them and learn all they can; this includes feeding options. Just as you want to be comfortable and confident in the choices you make related to delivery, you want to go home with the same sense of confidence about how you’ll feed your baby and know where to turn when you have questions.”

 

SVMC offers the following pre- and post-natal resources related to feeding a newborn. To learn more about these resources, call (802) 447-5160:

Childbirth Education: during the final trimester, covers feeding options and other topics related to delivery and caring for a newborn

Prenatal lactation class: offered every other month to all expectant parents to learn more about lactation, breastfeeding, and feeding their baby human milk

Postpartum lactation support: consultation with a board-certified lactation consultant immediately after birth and throughout a new family’s stay at the hospital  

Ongoing lactation support: SVMC’s lactation consultants are available 24/7 to support and assist in the days, weeks, and months after birth.

The Baby Café: Based out of the Bennington Community Market at 239 Main St., Bennington every Wednesday from 11 to 12:30 p.m., the Baby Café is a free and friendly resource for new and expectant parents—no matter how you are or plan to feed your child. Staffed with International Board-Certified Lactation Consultants and/or RNs, the Café provides breastfeeding support in an informal, drop-in group setting with lunch provided.

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A Note from SVMC Dentistry

Unlike many other types of health care, most dental procedures require that a patient be present in the office with their mouth uncovered and wide open. In addition, many dental procedures, produce a lot of spray or aerosolized particles that could spread infection. For these reasons, reopening dental offices while COVID-19 circulates requires many strict precautions to ensure safety for patients and staff.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Vermont Department of Health have issued the requirements necessary to reopen our office for patient care. For the next few months, the changes lessen by half the number of patients we are able to see per day and dramatically change the care experience.

Here are some of the changes we've made:

  • We are screening and testing our staff, and all staff are wearing more protective equipment than ever, including treatment gowns and gloves, head coverings, facemasks (such as surgical masks, N95 masks, or respirators), and face-shields, as required during treatment procedures.
  • Patients can use the "virtual" waiting room to lessen the number of people in our waiting room and observe social distancing. We ask that only one person accompany a patient to a dental appointment and only if the patient needs assistance.
  • We screen patients at the Medical Office Building entrance to ensure they have no symptoms and that they are wearing a facemask. Patients must wear their facemask at all times, except during the actual treatment.
  • Some preventive care and treatments carry a higher risk for producing airborne oral droplets. These procedures may be modified to ensure that care is safe.
  • Most dramatically, depending on the dental treatment, a room must remain idle for 15 minutes - 1 hour to allow droplets to settle before disinfection. This limits the number of patients that we can treat each day.

While it is very disappointing to us—after all, we became dentists and hygienists because we like to provide dental care—all existing appointments will be suspended and a new schedule will be created, based on the time it takes for a room to be disinfected. We understand that this is frustrating for patients who must wait longer than usual for an appointment, but it is also necessary to make care safe for all.

Major changes to the ventilation systems—the installation of HEPA filtration and negative-pressure in our treatment rooms—will eliminate airborne droplets more quickly and enable us to see more patients per day. This change is expected to be complete later this summer.

In the meantime, we appreciate your patience as we meet your needs as best we can. We encourage you to continue vigilant home care and reach out to us with your questions. Most of all, we look forward to returning to a more normal time when we can deliver all of the dental care our community needs safely and efficiently.

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