TAKE FIVE!

September 29, 2020

Samantha Mango:
Hi, I’m Samantha Mango. Welcome to “Sullivan 180 Presents… Take Five”! Our guest today is Stephanie Sosnowski, the director of Perinatal and Lactation Services, Coordinator Mid- Hudson Lactation Consortium at Maternal Infant Services. (MiSN) Welcome Stephanie. Thanks for joining us.

Stephanie Sosnowski:
Hi, thank you so much for inviting me into your little show. I’m excited to be here!

Samantha Mango:
Can you please introduce yourself and let us know about your organization?

Stephanie Sosnowski:
Sure. I work for a wonderful nonprofit called Maternal Infant Services Network. I am certified as a childbirth educator, so I teach the childbirth classes for whoever would like me to teach them. I’m also certified as a lactation consultant. Maternal Infant Services Network is here and is able to help families enroll in health insurance. With folks losing their jobs and losing their health insurance, it’s really important to make sure that you do stay covered, especially if you’ve got little kids. You want to make sure that they keep up with their vaccinations and their wellness visits. The other part of our organization is our ‘community health advocate’. And she’s available to help folks who already have health insurance, and maybe they are having a difficult time with it. Maybe they keep getting a bill and they know they paid it or that were not supposed to have been charged for it. So we offer those services for free and we do have an 800 number when 1-800-453-4666 that people can reach us and a website, which is www.MiSN-NY.org. All the information is available there as well.

Samantha Mango:
Can you talk a little bit about breastfeeding and its importance for both moms and babies?

Stephanie Sosnowski:
Well, we know that breastfeeding is the way that human babies should be fed. And I understand that moms make their own decisions, but babies always come out wanting to breastfeed and expecting to breastfeed. So we’re there to support moms in that decision, whether they want to do it full time or they’re just going to breastfeed while they were in the hospital or they’re going to breastfeed and pump their milk and provide it that way to their babies. Breastfeeding is really the first way that moms and babies really make that ‘outside world connection’. They’re connected inside. Moms and babies are communicating all the time while babies inside, but once they come out, that skin to skin is so important for the communication between the mother’s body and the baby’s body. Right? So the stuff that’s on the baby’s skin gets touched to the momma chest, that skin to skin that first hour, that all hospitals in New York state now are supposed to provide for the mom, as long as there’s no medical issues. That baby coming on mamma’s chest gets skin, no bath. The message that the moms skin is taking to her immune system is just amazing because it just tells all those antibodies ‘You have to go after this and you have to go up to that’. That’s why it’s so important. So important for that mom and the baby to be connected first,

Samantha Mango:
Tell us a little bit about La Taza Materna Baby Cafe.

Stephanie Sosnowski:
Yeah. So the Baby Cafe is so exciting! We were so fortunate to get funding from Sullivan 180… Thank You so Much! So that we were able to purchase a license for a ‘baby cafe’ In the early days, Baby Cafe was in person in our office in Liberty. And thank you again to Sullivan 180 for helping with all that!. That is awesome. La Taza Maternity was named that way because we wanted to make sure that the Spanish mamas were felt welcomed as well. But right now our meetings are virtual. So we meet every other Monday morning, just like this with our virtual link that we send out. We’re also available online. We have a private Facebook group. So moms that have any questions about breastfeeding at al,l or anything, we are there, we’re right on top of it. I’m the admin for it and our new Maternalistic Community Health Collaborative project coordinator, Geneva May is also the other admin. Our Spanish speaking community health worker, Lynette Vargas Gonzalez is also on there. So ‘mom’ can ask in Spanish, they can ask an English and we’ll get back to them as soon as possible. And that’s why La Taza Maternity is so important. So that moms don’t feel alone, that we can provide them with the right information.

Samantha Mango:
Are there any other resources locally that soon-to-be-moms and new moms can find about breast feeding?

Stephanie Sosnowski:
Yes, absolutely. Maternal Infant Services Network. I teach four times a year. We teach the online breastfeeding class for pregnant moms and dads. And that’s available free of charge from the former Catskill Regional Medical Center, which is now Garnett Medical Health Catskills. So those are free. I also teach the free prenatal childbirth classes. It’s a short express class, but it gives moms and dads a little bit of information about what to expect. And I have to of course, name Maternal Infant Services Network first, but our community health worker program is designed to help women before pregnancy, after pregnancy, during pregnancy: anytime of their reproductive life age, we can help them at no charge. And of course, there is ‘Sullivan County Healthy Families’. There’s ‘Sullivan County Public Health Nurses’, the ‘WIC’ program, and ‘Hudson Valley Community Services’. There’s lots and lots of resources out there. Make any connection to MiSN and we certainly can find the help that the moms or fathers need as well.

Samantha Mango:
Is there anything else that you’d like to share?

Stephanie Sosnowski:
Breastfeeding has really taken a ‘high spot’ in Sullivan County as far as improving the public health. You know, Sullivan County has not gotten a really good rating with public health, but breastfeeding is really the way to have everybody on the same playing field. All babies should have the benefit of breastfeeding for however long mom chooses to. It is recommended that the mom breastfeeds for six months exclusively. Now that can be a challenge when she’s going back to work, but we’ve done a lot with the Coalition to help businesses understand that mama is protected by the ‘New York State Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Law’, which provides you with the time and appropriate space to pump. And it cannot be a bathroom, right? And we really hope that if there’s a mom out there that is not being satisfied with the way her business or her employer is treating her to please contact us because we’ll make some phone calls. We’ll make sure that the employer understands what the law is.

Samantha Mango:
When is your next virtual class?

Stephanie Sosnowski:
My next class is October 7th from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. The information is available if you go to the Garnet Health, website. My phone number is on there and we can get you the information, or you can just contact me. I’m on Facebook. You can go through the La Taza Materna. MiSN has a Facebook page as well. Sullivan County Breastfeeding Coalition has a Facebook page, and we do post information all over the place. So many of these awesome. They always share!

Samantha Mango:
Great information. So thanks for sharing and thanks again for joining us today. Stephanie, super informative and thanks MiSN for all of their efforts and making Sullivan County a healthier place.

Stephanie Sosnowski:
You are welcome.