The Lactation Access Initiative
Expanding access. Removing barriers. Advancing Lactation Justice.
The Lactation Access Initiative is The Obsidian Milk Collective’s long-term commitment to expanding equitable access to compassionate, culturally responsive lactation care and education across Alabama.
We believe access is created by removing the barriers that prevent families from receiving care and education while building sustainable, community-based solutions that strengthen lactation support for generations to come.
Rooted in OMC’s commitment to advancing Lactation Justice and improving outcomes for Black families, the initiative works toward a future where more Alabama families have the opportunity to meet their feeding goals with dignity, compassion, and equitable access.
Why This Initiative Exists
Access to lactation care should not depend on a family’s ZIP code, insurance coverage, transportation, or ability to pay. Access to professional lactation care and education is not experienced equally.
Accessibility can look different for every family. It may mean having a lactation professional nearby, finding a provider who reflects and understands your lived experience, receiving care in a setting that works for you, having access to a breast pump or other lactation resources, being able to afford care, having insurance that covers the services you need, or being able to continue care for as long as it is clinically necessary.
For some families, one of these barriers may stand in the way. For others, several may exist at once.
Accessibility means creating real pathways.
The Lactation Access Initiative recognizes that there is no single solution to improving access. OMC works across direct clinical care, lactation education, community-based resources, financial assistance, Medicaid access, partnerships, and policy and advocacy to create and strengthen those pathways.
Our goal is to build a model of lactation care and education where families can learn, find, reach, receive, and continue the care they need, and where the professionals providing that care are recognized and valued for their expertise.
Our Approach
There is no single barrier to lactation care, which means there cannot be a single solution to improving access.
OMC approaches accessibility by looking at the full pathway between a family and the care they need. We consider whether families can learn, find care, reach care, receive care, and continue care when it is needed.
Our approach includes:
Availability — expanding access to professional lactation care and education in communities where services may be limited or unavailable.
Representation — increasing access to care that reflects, understands, and responds to the communities we serve.
Affordability — creating pathways to care when cost would otherwise be a barrier.
Coverage — addressing insurance and Medicaid gaps that can limit access to lactation services, breast pumps, and related care.
Location — bringing care closer to families through community-based, virtual, and expanding mobile access.
Resources — helping families access the pumps, supplies, education, and other tools that support their lactation care.
Continuity — creating a model where access does not end after one encounter when additional clinical care is needed.
Systems Change — working beyond individual care to address policies and practices that create or sustain barriers to lactation access.
Accessibility looks different for every family. Our approach is designed to meet families where barriers exist and create real pathways to professional lactation care.
Why Community-Based Care Matters
Community-based care brings professional lactation services closer to where families live, work, give birth, and raise their families.
OMC is a clinical lactation practice operating through a nonprofit model. Like other healthcare organizations, the professionals providing care through OMC must meet the education, training, credentialing, and professional requirements appropriate to their roles. Our organizational structure expands how care can be funded and accessed; it does not change the professional standards of the care provided.
Families receiving clinical services through OMC receive individualized lactation care that may include assessment, care planning, education, documentation, follow-up, referrals, and collaboration with other healthcare professionals when appropriate.
Our community-based model allows OMC to create care pathways beyond a single traditional setting. Through virtual care, community partnerships, local access points, and expanding in-person and mobile services, professional lactation care can be available closer to the people who need it.
Whether care is funded by a family, insurance reimbursement, the Lactation Access Fund, grants, philanthropy, or another source, the quality and value of the care remain the same.
Quality lactation care should be both clinically sound and genuinely accessible. Our model is designed to make room for both.
The Work of the Initiative
The Lactation Access Initiative turns OMC's commitment to accessibility into action through direct access and systems change.
Our work is organized across three connected areas, each addressing different barriers between families and professional lactation care.
Lactation Access Fund
The Lactation Access Fund creates a community-supported pathway to professional lactation care when financial barriers or gaps in coverage stand between a family and the care they need.
The Fund helps ensure that the ability to pay does not determine whether someone can access or continue clinically appropriate lactation care.
Medicaid Access
Our Medicaid Access work addresses the specific service and breast pump access gaps experienced by Alabama Medicaid families.
OMC creates pathways for families to receive professional lactation care and access appropriate breast pumps while also identifying and documenting the gaps that require longer-term solutions.
Policy & Advocacy
Access cannot depend solely on individual programs filling gaps that healthcare systems and policies continue to create.
Through Policy & Advocacy, OMC works toward sustainable changes in lactation coverage, reimbursement, breast pump access, and other policies that influence whether families can access professional lactation care.
Our advocacy is grounded in the experiences of families, the realities of community-based clinical care, and our commitment to advancing Lactation Justice.
Building Access for Today and Tomorrow
The Lactation Access Initiative is designed to meet families where barriers exist today while working toward a future where fewer barriers exist at all.
Through the Lactation Access Fund, Medicaid Access, and Policy & Advocacy, OMC is building multiple pathways toward the same goal:
Professional lactation care that families can learn, find, reach, receive, and continue when they need it.
Access may look different for every family. Our commitment to creating it does not
The Obsidian Milk Collective is fiscally sponsored by the West Alabama Women’s Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Tax-deductible contributions designated for OMC are received and administered through our fiscal sponsor in support of OMC’s mission and programs.