Michigan Breastfeeding Network

Your milk run 🥛🛒 can fund MIBFN’s mission 💙

Link your Kroger Rewards card to Michigan Breastfeeding Network today:
1️⃣ Sign in
2️⃣ Search “Michigan Breastfeeding Network”
3️⃣ Select it
4️⃣ Click “Save”

From that point forward, every transaction supports breastfeeding support across Michigan.

Ni**le pain and damage are among the most common challenges families experience during lactation - but with timely assessment, effective support, and evidence-based strategies, many concerns can be addressed while helping families meet their feeding goals.

Join us for “Ni**le Issues in Lactation: Assessment, Prevention, and Practical Solutions,” a Great Lakes Breastfeeding Webinar focused on strengthening clinical skills for identifying, preventing, and managing common ni**le concerns. Lactation and perinatal professionals will explore normal ni**le anatomy and variation, common causes of pain and trauma, and practical approaches to support healing, reduce discomfort, and sustain lactation.

Together, we’ll explore assessment strategies, latch and positioning support, trauma-informed counseling approaches, and when referral to an IBCLC, medical provider, or other specialist may be needed.

🎙 Presented by Natosha Sage-EL Bylsma, IBCLC, CPST
🗓 Available now!
📱 Learn anytime, anywhere
🎓 Approved for 1 L-CERP, 1 nurse's contact hour, 1 social work CE hour, 1 community health worker CEU, 1 certified health education specialist CECH, and 1 CME.
🔗 mibreastfeeding.org/webinars

Michigan Breastfeeding Network has been accepted by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners® (IBLCE®) as a Preferred Provider for the listed Continuing Education Recognition Points (CERPs) programme. Determination of CERPs eligibility or CERPs Provider status does not imply IBLCE’s endorsement or assessment of education quality. As a Preferred Provider, Michigan Breastfeeding Network attests that it complies with the WHO Code and subsequent WHA resolutions.

A small reminder 💙

Facebook fundraisers can be used for birthdays and other celebrations - often in lieu of gifts.

Thank you to those who have supported breastfeeding families in this way. 🤱🏾

Dear Great Lakes Breastfeeding Webinars community,

We have some difficult news to share.

After the release of the next Great Lakes Breastfeeding Webinar, “Ni**le Issues in Lactation: Assessment, Prevention, and Practical Solutions” on September 15, 2026, we will be pausing new Great Lakes Breastfeeding Webinar production. We will no longer be recording and releasing new webinars after the September 2026 webinar.

This is a funding decision. It is not a decision about whether this work is needed.

For more than a decade, the Great Lakes Breastfeeding Webinars have brought evidence-based continuing education to healthcare professionals, public health practitioners, community breastfeeding supporters, students, and others working to support families.
And this community has grown far beyond what we ever imagined.

In 2025 alone, 8,874 people participated in the webinars, generating 34,465 enrollments and 28,685 continuing education certificates. Participants joined us from all 50 states and more than 20 countries. 82% of our students were returning participants.

Those numbers tell part of the story. The rest is in the people who showed up month after month, brought what they learned back to their communities, asked thoughtful questions, shared resources with colleagues, and helped make this a place where we could all keep learning together.

The webinars that have already been released are not going away. They will remain available for their existing 12-month access periods, including continuing education and participant support. We will continue providing the associated reporting and support for the published webinars. To access and register for all available webinars please visit mibreastfeeding.org/webinars.

And we are not walking away from the future of this work.

We have developed a new Workforce Webinar Partnership model designed to create a sustainable way to continue producing webinars and providing workforce access. We are actively working to build the partnerships and investment needed to make that possible. We don't know exactly how long that work will take, but we are committed to do everything we can to keep publishing new education for our community.

Mostly, though, we want to say thank you.

Thank you to the presenters who have shared their knowledge and expertise with us. Thank you to our education consultants and webinar team, and to our partners at YOLO Breastfeeding. Thank you to the organizations and funders who have invested in this work over the past 10 years.

And thank you.

Thank you for registering. For attending. For coming back. For asking questions. For completing evaluations. For sharing webinars with colleagues. For telling us when something you learned here made a difference in your work.

You have made this more than a webinar series. You made it a community.

We are incredibly proud of what we have built together, and deeply grateful that you have been a part of it.

We are heartbroken that funding circumstances have brought us to this point. But we are also hopeful about what might come next, because we know what this community is capable of building together.

Thank you for letting us learn alongside you.

We hope this isn't goodbye. We hope it's a pause in a part of the story of a community that still has so much to learn and share together.

With deep gratitude,
The Great Lakes Breastfeeding Webinars Team
Michigan Breastfeeding Network & YOLO Breastfeeding

We’re proud to partner with Ready by Five to bring the Breastfeeding-Friendly Child Care Initiative to Kent County! Thanks to Kent County voters and the Ready by Five Early Childhood Millage, child care providers can build more welcoming, supportive spaces for human milk feeding families - helping little ones and the people who care for them thrive. Learn more at readybyfivekent.org.

First Steps Kent

2 minutes today ⏱️ = impact all year 💙

Enroll in Kroger Community Rewards and select Michigan Breastfeeding Network:
1️⃣ Sign in to your Kroger digital account
2️⃣ Search “Michigan Breastfeeding Network”
3️⃣ Click “Save”
4️⃣ Use your Shopper’s Card at checkout

Every future purchase now supports MIBFN.

How to use your employer’s matching gift program 💙👇

1️⃣ Check if your employer offers donation matching
2️⃣ Make your gift to MIBFN
3️⃣ Submit your match request through your employer
4️⃣ We confirm your donation

That’s it ✨

Your support helps expand access, advocacy, and care for families 💙

🔗 mibreastfeeding.org/donate

Michigan families deserve accessible breastfeeding support 🍼💙

You can help sustain it - while buying dinner 🍽️

Link your Kroger digital account to MIBFN and every eligible purchase with your Shopper’s Card funds lactation support, advocacy, and education statewide.

Feeding challenges aren't always about what we can see.

Join us for “From Breast to Beyond: Integrating Oral Motor/Feeding, Myofunctional Skills and Tethered Oral Tissues from an SLP Perspective,” a Great Lakes Breastfeeding Webinar exploring how oral motor skills, myofunctional development, and tethered oral tissues can influence feeding from the very beginning.

This session will help participants look beyond structure to better understand function, recognize compensatory feeding patterns, identify red flags for referral, and support families using an evidence-informed approach to breast and bottle feeding. Together, we'll explore practical strategies to strengthen assessment, education, and interdisciplinary collaboration in feeding support.

🎙 Presented by Jessica Evans, MA, CCC-SLP, CLC
🗓 Available now!
📱 Learn anytime, anywhere
🎓 Approved for 1 L-CERP, 1 nurse's contact hour, 1 social work CE hour, 1 community health worker CEU, 1 certified health education specialist CECH, and 1 CME.
🔗 mibreastfeeding.org/webinars

Michigan Breastfeeding Network has been accepted by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners® (IBLCE®) as a Preferred Provider for the listed Continuing Education Recognition Points (CERPs) programme. Determination of CERPs eligibility or CERPs Provider status does not imply IBLCE’s endorsement or assessment of education quality. As a Preferred Provider, Michigan Breastfeeding Network attests that it complies with the WHO Code and subsequent WHA resolutions.

You may already be planning a birthday or milestone. Some people choose to create a Facebook fundraiser in lieu of gifts. 🎉

This is one way to help build a more just, equitable, and breastfeeding-supportive culture across Michigan. 💙