Methods: Maternity Care Practices

Methods

In 2007, CDC administered the first national survey of maternity care practices related to breastfeeding to every facility in the United States and territories that routinely provided maternity care services. Known as the Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care (mPINC) survey, this survey is a national census of facilities routinely providing maternity care.

The initial survey established measures of practices in place at intrapartum care facilities across the United States and territories and showed how the practices varied by state. CDC administered the survey every other year thereafter until 2015 to monitor and examine changes in practices over time. After the 2015 administration, CDC redesigned the survey to reflect changes in maternity care practices that had occurred in the United States over the past decade. The newly designed survey launched in 2018.

Each survey year we screen hospitals by telephone. We contact the mother-baby nurse manager or the manager of the labor and delivery unit to help identify the best person to complete a survey that includes questions about infant nutrition, such as breastfeeding, using formula to feed healthy newborns, and feeding routines. Because we follow this process each time that we administer a new survey, the person identified to receive the survey one year is not necessarily the person identified to receive the survey in a later cycle.