Free Webinar: South Dakota Breastfeeding-Friendly Business Initiative

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Overview:

The South Dakota Department of Health and SDSU Extension partnered to create the Breastfeeding-Friendly Business Initiative to educate and encourage businesses and all types of organizations to pledge their support for breastfeeding customers and employees.  The initiative is based on federal and state law protecting a mother’s right to breastfeed.

The pledge states a business will provide a welcoming environment, encourage a welcoming attitude from staff, display the Breastfeeding Welcome Here window cling and accommodate breastfeeding employees and customers. Currently 675 South Dakota businesses have pledged their support!

Learning Objectives:

The initiative aims to:

• increase breastfeeding duration,
• increase communication between employee and employer about breastfeeding and pumping when returning to work,
• increase business knowledge about the federal and state breastfeeding laws, and
• create culture change to normalize breastfeeding and reframe nursing in public.

Faculty: 

Megan Erickson is a Nutrition Field Specialist with SDSU Extension based at the Aberdeen Regional Center. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Dietetics at South Dakota State University and a Master’s in Nutrition at Texas Woman’s University. As a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, she provides leadership for healthy nutrition and physical activity practices to help prevent and manage chronic disease. By pairing nutrition with an active lifestyle, her goal is to educate the people of South Dakota on those values in hopes to make a difference in their daily lives. Her partnership with the SD Department of Health has played an integral role in the expansion of the Breastfeeding-Friendly Business Initiative across the state of South Dakota.  In her spare time, she loves to spend time with her husband and two kids (Haley – 5 and Max – 2), run, and spend her summers at the baseball field and lake.

Megan Hlavacek is the Healthy Foods Coordinator for the South Dakota Department of Health Office of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. She is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Lactation Consultant. She received her Master of Science degree from the University of Nebraska Lincoln in Nutrition and Health Sciences. Megan has worked for the South Dakota Department of Health for almost 10 years first for the WIC
program in the Sioux Falls office and her current position with the Office of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Her work encompasses a variety of projects and programs based on federal and state grant funds including the Breastfeeding- Friendly Business Initiative. Her husband and three kids (Audi – 8, Hudson – 5, and Kennedi – 2) keep her busy, grounded, and motivated to continually work to support South Dakotans to live healthy, active lives.

Registration information and fees:

This event is free, however prior registration is required. Registration is per connection at a facility and include electronic handout and one connection line to the live webinar. Connection instructions and handout materials will be emailed to the contact person listed on the registration 1-2 days prior to the program.

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