What Inclusive Care Means to Us

By Ali Weatherford

June is Pride Month. We are spending time considering what this means for us as a service provider and for all of our team members. It’s critical that we do. We want our diverse team to feel well-supported, and for every family that we serve to know how much they matter to us. Inclusive care has to be our standard of care.

What Is Inclusive Care?

We believe that inclusive care is not just about providing a service to anyone who asks for it. We insist on more than that. Our first goal is to reach all families even before they need us. We want everyone to see that we know there are an infinite number of ways that people become families, and that they all have different needs when caring for their babies. We want all families to understand that they can come to us for care. These are some of the ways we focus our efforts.

Our Language Matters

Our teachers and providers, at first consciously, and now almost automatically, use a number of different pronouns and labels interchangeably. Parents might identify as mothers or fathers, they might be he or she, but they also might not. When we can, we’ll ask for a person’s individual preference, but when we’re writing articles, posts, or teaching to a virtual class, we work to use as many different pronouns and labels as possible. We do this because we want you to know that we see you, and we want you to see yourself in the information that we share.

Our Outreach Matters

Our social media, our blog posts, and all of our outreach efforts need to target a complete audience so we reach everyone. Through these efforts, we hope you can see the full spectrum of care we provide, so that you know you can come to us with any needs you might have. You might be adopting a baby or you might not have a parent who can lactate. Those families may still need guidance for feeding their babies. You might have two parents who are able to lactate and both want to give it a try! Those families need a different kind of care, and we want you to know that we can provide it and have.

Our Individual Care Matters

Inclusive care also means that when your family reaches out to us, we will see you as an individual entity. You are not just like the family we saw before you or the one that will come after. We can’t standardize care as if all babies and parents are the same. They are not. We’ve seen this in our long practice and extensive experience. We also insist on continuing education for all of our team members, and this often includes education related to inclusive care and equity.

What Is Equity?

Equity is not the same as equality. Equality means that everyone receives the same treatment. That might sound right, but it’s not quite right. Equity means that everyone receives the treatment they need. For example, as a care provider, I might need someone to sign a consent form for treatment, so I offer them the paper form and a pen. If I offer the same to each person I treat, I’m not necessarily doing the right thing. Some people might speak a different language and don’t understand what they’re signing. Others might be visually impaired, or not able to read. Still others might have a disability or injury that doesn’t allow them to hold a pen in their hand. In those cases, equitable care means I will be sure they can understand and give consent another way if they need to.

Our Goal and Our Promise

Our goal is to make sure that everyone who needs the care we provide can find us and access the care. We use many avenues to help you find us, from our marketing efforts, to the placement of our care. In the hospitals we partner with, we see every person who gives birth and has a baby to care for. We do this regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. We do this for every person who wants it. In our outpatient care and education, we make ourselves available at many locations, virtually, and even in your home.

Our promise is to see you as an individual and help you meet your own goals for feeding your baby. We also promise to continue and expand our efforts to create more equity in the lactation profession by training and employing a diverse team of care providers.

We are so grateful to the families who have already trusted us for their care, and we hope to be a safe landing spot for so many more families to come. As humans, so much of our strength comes from our diversity. We believe that our ability to appreciate, elevate, and use our diversity to its full potential is what will make us great and able to overcome some of humanity’s biggest challenges.