Survey Cover Letter Email-English

Hello:

You are invited to participate in CDC’s survey of Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care (mPINC) using the link below. The questions in the mPINC survey focus on specific parts of maternity care that affect how babies are fed. Your hospital has already been screened and deemed eligible to participate. A staff member at your hospital has identified you as the person most knowledgeable about these practices at your hospital. If you have questions, please contact [email protected] and refer to Hospital ID <<hospital_id>>.

Your participation is completely voluntary; it takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. The link provided here is unique to your hospital. If your hospital has more than one location that provides maternity care, please complete the survey only for the location identified below.

Hospital Name: <<screened_hospital_name>>

Address: <<screened_addr_line_1>>

<<screened_addr_line_2>>

<<screened_addr_city>>, <<screened_addr_state>> <<screened_addr_zip>>

<<Click here to go to the mPINC Survey:Link>>

This survey contains 6 core sections and an additional section for hospitals with a Special Care Nursery (SCN) or Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Below is a list of all sections of the 2026 mPINC survey, including a brief description of each section and a link to that section. You may find that the experience or knowledge of other staff within your hospital may be needed to answer some of the survey questions in a section. We encourage you to share the link(s) to obtain input from other key personnel, as needed. Please communicate with your colleague(s) about who will complete section H to submit the survey.

Section A: Hospital Data

This section is about deliveries and general hospital information.

Section B: Special Care Nursery (SCN) and/or Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

This section is about practices in your hospital’s SCN and/or NICU.

Section C: Care Practices

This section is about early postpartum care practices for all healthy mother-baby dyads, regardless of feeding method. More information/supporting evidence is available here.

Section D: Feeding Practices

This section is about infant feeding practices for healthy breastfed newborns.

Section E: Education and Support of Mothers

This section is about information taught to mothers and caregivers about feeding and caring for their newborn and support provided to mothers by staff.

Section F: Staffing

This section is about maternity-care staff and providers who work in your maternity-care unit, as well as staff and provider responsibilities and training.

Section G: Policies and Procedures

This section is about hospital policies and procedures.

Section H: Exit / Completion

Please submit your survey responses as soon as possible in order for your hospital’s information to be included in the mPINC analysis and to receive a Hospital Report.

There is more information at the bottom of this email. Thank you in advance for your time and participation in this important survey.

Sincerely,

Anu Pejavara, MPH

Chief, Nutrition Branch

Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

About the mPINC Survey

The mPINC survey asks about day-to-day practices in mother-baby care at your hospital, and focuses on infant nutrition and care including breastfeeding, use of formula by healthy newborns, and feeding routines. Since you are completing the survey on behalf of your hospital, you may find that the experience or knowledge of other staff within your hospital may be needed to answer some of the survey questions. We encourage you to share this survey link to obtain input from other key personnel, as needed.

This survey is being conducted by Abt Global on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to assess infant feeding practices at maternity care hospitals in the United States and territories. It was first administered in 2007 and has been administered about every two years since, allowing the monitoring of infant feeding practices trends over time. All hospitals in the United States and territories identified as providing maternity care are being asked to participate in the survey, whether or not they participated in the previous surveys.

Once data collection and analysis are complete, we will send you an individualized hospital report containing a summary of your survey results and a comparison of your results to the nation, the region, and to other hospitals of similar size, showing specific changes your hospital can make to support breastfeeding mothers. Hospitals can use this information to improve care practices and policies to better support their maternity patients. In addition, anonymous results from all hospitals will be summarized nationally and for each state.

Privacy

CDC will keep the information that you provide private and secure to the extent permitted by law.

Upon request, data with hospital identifiers (i.e., hospital name and address) may be shared under a data use agreement with applicable state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments for the development of public health programs. Data without hospital identifiers may be released under data use agreements for additional approved purposes such as answering research questions.

Your business contact information is collected to provide your hospital’s survey answers and private individualized report, as well as to invite your participation in future mPINC surveys or other related opportunities. Your name, hospital name, and any other personal identifiers will not be included in either oral or written presentation of survey results. Responses will only be reported in summary form (≥5 hospitals) so individual responses cannot be identified. Business contact information (i.e., name and email address) will not be shared with health departments or other data requesters.

Survey Tips:

• Click here [https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding-data/mpinc/survey.html] to download/print a blank copy of the survey.

• You may change the language to English or Spanish by clicking the language button in the upper right corner. You can then select “English” or “Español” for your preferred language.

• Move between sections of the survey by clicking the Survey Queue at the upper right of the page and clicking Begin survey on the section of your choosing.

• After completing a section, move to the next by clicking Complete Section.

• Do not click on your browser's back and forward buttons while taking the survey.

What to do when you have completed the survey:

When you are ready to submit, please affirm that you are finished in Section H and click Submit. You will be directed to a screen thanking you for your submission. This action will send the survey to a secure database. Once you have submitted the survey, you will not be able to return to it. It is important to remember to click Submit at the end of the last survey section to complete the submission process.

Once you have submitted the survey, you will be sent an email with your survey responses.