New Beginnings Baby Café Anniversary Celebration Set for Nov. 6

New Beginnings Baby Café, the free, drop-in breastfeeding support session for nursing and expecting mothers, will celebrate its third anniversary on Tuesday, Nov. 6 from 5 to 7 p.m. in Brookings Hospital Conference Room A.

Interested community members, mothers and baby graduates from New Beginnings Baby Café are invited to attend. Snacks and refreshments will be served. Each Baby Café graduate will receive a free onesie or toddler t-shirt.

As a Baby-Friendly® designated hospital, Brookings Health System established New Beginnings Baby Café in 2015 to give free support to breastfeeding mothers in all aspects of nursing, from starting to weaning and every variation in between. IBCLC Lactation Consultants and Registered Nurses Aleycia Gerlach and Charlotte Bachman and Certified Lactation Counselor Nancy DeBoer, RN, meet with mothers during Baby Café sessions on Tuesdays from 5 to 7 p.m. and Thursdays from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Mothers who attend Baby Café have the opportunity to weigh-feed-weigh their babies to measure how much their infants drink in one feeding. In addition, Gerlach and Bachmann record the babies’ weights to chart growth. Because the group is free to all pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, moms can also talk with other moms.

New Beginning Baby Café is currently the only Baby Café session in South Dakota registered with Baby Café USA. More information about New Beginnings Baby Café and Brookings Health System’s OB unit can be found at www.brookingshealth.org/OB.

About Brookings Health System

Brookings Health System, located in Brookings, South Dakota, includes a 49-bed hospital, the 79-bed The Neighborhoods at Brookview nursing home, Brookhaven Estates senior living apartments, Yorkshire Eye Clinic, and medical clinics in Arlington, White and Volga, South Dakota. It is a non-profit, city-owned facility that offers the community a full range of inpatient, outpatient, surgical and extended care services. The emergency room is staffed 24 hours a day and provides around the clock patient needs ranging from minor injuries to life threatening crises. For more information about the services offered at Brookings Health System, please call (605) 696-9000 or visit us on the Web at brookingshealth.org.