On Monday morning, September 8, 2025, more than 50 stakeholders, community partners, and maternal health professionals from across New Jersey gathered at Shiloh Baptist Church for the official kick-off of the NJ Supports Breastfeeding initiative. NJ Supports Breastfeeding, a central element of the 2022-2027 New Jersey Breastfeeding Strategic Plan, is supported by the Central Jersey Family Health Consortium in collaboration with The Cooperative and The Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey, with funding from the New Jersey Department of Health. NJ Supports Breastfeeding is designed to normalize breastfeeding and make support more accessible to families, employers and providers across New Jersey.
Central Jersey Family Health Consortium CEO Robyn D’Oria and Rev. Darrell Armstrong of Shiloh Baptist Church warmly welcomed the audience, speaking to the importance of partnerships between the state, organizations like Central Jersey Family Health Consortium, and cultural and religious centers like Shiloh, which serve as trusted community anchors. “Community centers and faith-based spaces are where families turn first,” Rev. Armstrong said, “and partnerships with organizations like Central Jersey Family Health Consortium help ensure resources like [NJ Supports Breastfeeding] reach everyone who needs them.”
Acting New Jersey Health Commissioner Jeffrey Brown and Nancy Scotto, Executive Director of Maternal and Child Health at the NJ Department of Health, highlighted the New Jersey Breastfeeding Strategic Plan’s history and achievements. Pamela Taylor, Senior Advisor of Maternal & Infant Health Innovation at the New Jersey Maternal & Infant Health Innovation Authority (MIHIA) shared MIHIA’s goals for supporting maternal and infant health in the state, emphasizing New Jersey’s commitment to ensuring that all mothers, families, employers, and health professionals have accessible and accurate breastfeeding information and support.
New Jersey State Breastfeeding Coordinator Ellen Maughan and NJ Breastfeeding Strategic Plan Associate Videsha Joshi provided a tour of the website, explaining how attendees can use it to support themselves and the communities they serve.
Flashing to a slide that showcased the vibrant homepage, Maughan echoed the slogan that guided the creation of the website, “Breastfeeding Is Natural, but It’s Not Always Easy” She said, “Supporting families means more than just guidance…it means acknowledging the barriers in breastfeeding for New Jersey families, and the first step to breaking those barriers is ensuring that all families, providers, and caregivers can access all of the information they need in one place…Working with stakeholders, maternal health professionals, New Jersey parents, and community and advocacy groups, [the NJ Supports Breastfeeding initiative] aims to provide culturally competent information so that all families—particularly families of color who have historically faced multiple barriers to breastfeeding—have the support they need.”
The website, thoughtfully designed and able to be translated and printed in 11 different languages, has detailed sections not only for breastfeeding, but also for information about human donor milk, breastfeeding in medical or emergency situations, breastfeeding legal rights, county-by-county lactation support listings, and guidance for dads, friends and extended family, professionals, and employers.
“This initiative isn’t just about mom,” Videsha Joshi explained, as she guided the audience to the For Professionals section, “It’s also about healthcare institutions and maternal health professionals having easy access to the support they need at their fingertips, including resources to support breastfeeding, information on the personalized postpartum care plan law, trimester-by-trimester talking points on lactation education, continuing education opportunities, and guidance on becoming a lactation professional. We want professionals to know that this website isn’t just a resource for breastfeeding individuals. It’s for them too.”
Closing out the morning, three parents who shared their stories in a series of powerful videos gave their testimony about the importance of this website, “I wish I had this website when I began my breastfeeding journey,” Andrea Cuevas said, “it would have looked a lot different…[but] I’m grateful it exists now. As a WIC Peer Counselor, I refer almost all of my clients to this website, knowing that they are going to get the support they need.”
The excitement and positive feedback to the website attests that NJ Supports Breastfeeding is more than just an initiative—it is a movement to build a culture of breastfeeding support across the state of New Jersey.
With the initiative officially launched, NJ Supports Breastfeeding will continue to provide families, professionals, employers and community organizations the most up-to-date support and resources, to ensure that no one must navigate the breastfeeding journey alone.
