Bits and Pieces: Ranking of US states from the 2024 mPINC Survey
May 13, 2025
The thing with breastfeeding is that you need to get it started to keep it going. Thus, the maternity hospital experience is critical: Are mothers and babies separated routinely? Are hospital staff trained on lactation? Are free gifts from Larry the formula guy sitting on the table in the staff room?
The United States started to gather data on how hospitals were doing in 2007. This post shares the ranking of U.S. states from the 2024 mPINC survey.
If you work in a hospital, has your manager shared the survey results with the unit? Has the leadership developed a plan for improvement? If you are birthing at a hospital, what is their most recent mPINC score?
Background
What does mPINC stand for?
mPINC stands for Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care.
What is mPINC?
mPINC is a national survey conducted every two years of all hospitals with maternity services by the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control (CDC). The survey is sent to hospital leaders of the maternity unit.
What does the mPINC survey measure?
From the CDC website, the mPINC survey measures care practices and policies that impact newborn feeding, feeding education, staff skills and discharge support. A lot of questions ask about compliance with the 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, the framework of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.
The final report gives a total score and scores on 6 sections:
Immediate post-partum care
Rooming in
Feeding practices
Feeding education and support
Discharge support
Institutional management – including questions about policy and if the hospital is paying a fair-market value for infant formula and infant formula products
Below is an example of a question. The hospital leaders filling out the survey give the unit a grade - the survey is submitted - and is then scored. You can see how the leaders thought they were doing (most), the ideal answer (most), and then the score received for that question (100).
Each hospital that completes a survey receives a report with the scores for the hospital. Each state gets a score. Each geographic section of the country gets a score. The highest possible total score is 100.
The national score for 2024 was 82. The score for the first national mPINC survey in 2007 was 63.
The highest possible total score is 100.
The rankings
Rank — State —Total mPINC Score
1.Delaware 93
2. N Hampshire 90
3. Vermont 90
4T. California 89
4T. Massachusetts 89
6T. Connecticut 88
6T. New Mexico 88
8T. Oregon 87
8T. Rhode Island 87
8T. Mississippi 87
11T. Washington 86
11T. Colorado 86
13T. Ohio 85
13T. Wisconsin 85
13T. Florida 85
13T. Louisiana 85
17T. N Carolina 84
17T. Montana 84
17T. New Jersey 84
17T. New York 84
21T. Maryland 83
21T. Pennsylvania 83
21T. Indiana 83
24T. Maine 82
24T. Virginia 82
26T. Illinois 81
26T. Kansas 81
26T. Minnesota 81
26T. Texas 81
30T. S Carolina 80
31T. Idaho 79
31T. Michigan 79
31T. Oklahoma 79
34T. Hawaii 78
34T. Georgia 78
34T. N Dakota 78
34T. Utah 78
38T. Alaska 77
38T. Missouri 77
40T. Alabama 76
40T. Arizona 76
40T. Iowa 76
40T. Nevada 76
40T. Tennessee 76
40T. W Virginia 76
46T. Nebraska 75
46T. S Dakota 75
48. Kentucky 74
49. Wyoming 73
50. Arkansas 71
Over the years, US Average mPINC Scores
2007 63
2009 65
2011 70
2013 75
2015 79
2018 79
2020 81
2022 81
2024 82