Dear Friend,

This holiday season, breastfeeding advocates have much to be thankful for: we can celebrate several major accomplishments this year in our work “advancing breastfeeding on our Nation’s agenda.” Following close on the heels of advances in workplace support and maternity care, USBC leaders met at the White House in August with the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign. The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report included several recommendations on breastfeeding as a key factor in early childhood, echoing USBC’s new Position Statement on Breastfeeding as a Critical Strategy for Obesity Prevention.

The momentum continues to build: breastfeeding support is now truly “on the radar” in new ways and in new areas. As we prepare for the impending launch of the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding, it is important that breastfeeding advocates celebrate our successes while also refocusing and renewing our commitment to the work that lies ahead. To that end, USBC is pleased to present Breastfeeding: A Vision for the Future.

Based on evidence, Breastfeeding: A Vision for the Future is aimed to increase awareness of the importance of breastfeeding and the support needed from all sectors of society to achieve our national breastfeeding goals. The Vision draws attention to the gaps in U.S. policy and outlines nine crucial objectives that must be met to fully address the barriers faced by mothers.

Many USBC member and partner organizations have already sponsored or signed on to support the Vision. The next step is to collect individual signatures! Please add your name as a supporter of Breastfeeding: A Vision for the Future–together our voices can make a lasting impact towards the social, environmental, and institutional change needed to support our Nation’s mothers.

Our goal is to reach 15,000+ individual supporters of the Vision. Help us to create a powerful statement of our shared vision. Don’t delay: register your support by signing on today!

We look forward to our continued work together–we can make a difference for future generations! From all of us at USBC, thank you.

Sincerely,

Robin W. Stanton, MA, RD, LD
Chair

United States Breastfeeding Committee
2025 M Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202/367-1132
Fax: 202/367-2132
E-mail: office@usbreastfeeding.org
Web: www.usbreastfeeding.org

The United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) is an independent nonprofit coalition of more than 40 nationally influential professional, educational, and governmental organizations. Representing over a million concerned professionals and the families they serve, USBC and its member organizations share a common mission to improve the Nation’s health by working collaboratively to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. For more information about USBC, visit www.usbreastfeeding.org.

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The United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) was recently contracted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create a library of images of how communities across the U.S. support breastfeeding mothers and babies. As part of this effort, USBC offered a one-time sub-contracting opportunity for state, territorial, and tribal breastfeeding coalitions to identify and showcase exemplary local commitment to supporting breastfeeding mothers and babies, utilizing the services of a professional photojournalist.

The Landscape of Breastfeeding Support program reviewed 39 proposals before choosing eight coalitions from across the country to be awarded sub-contracts. The funded photo project “stories” are summarized below. Download the full stories at:

http://www.usbreastfeeding.org/Portals/0/Coalitions/Landscape-of-BF-Support-Full-Stories.pdf

The photos will be featured in the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding, as well as at launch events for the Call to Action. All photos will be archived and made available via an online file sharing system, allowing all state/territorial/tribal breastfeeding coalitions to benefit from the program.

Utah Breastfeeding Coalition

Utah Opens Its Doors to Breastfeeding Mothers

Community Support in Action

As part of a recent campaign, the Utah Breastfeeding Coalition (UBC), in partnership with La Leche League of Utah, invited and encouraged local businesses to display the International Breastfeeding Symbol as a demonstration of support for breastfeeding mothers. UBC will showcase the campaign’s success by photographing the Symbol in some of its more than 70 locations across Salt Lake County. The images will be used to create posters and calendars as well as promotional material for the 6th Annual Breastfeeding Café to be held in August 2011.

Nebraska Breastfeeding Coalition

Making a Difference: A Decade of Dedication to Breastfeeding Support in One Nebraska Community

Community Support in Action

The Nebraska Breastfeeding Coalition is proud to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of MilkWorks, an organization committed to providing breastfeeding education and support, regardless of a mother’s ability to pay for services. MilkWorks offers clinical care for breastfeeding mothers and serves as a resource for health care providers in an easily accessible building designed to facilitate interaction between staff, clients, and their families. The photographic documentation of this successful community breastfeeding center will illustrate the hard work and dedication of the MilkWorks founders and staff.

Indiana Black Breastfeeding Coalition (with the Indiana Breastfeeding Alliance and the Indiana Perinatal Network)

The Naomi and Ruth (NAR) Project

Community Support in Action

The Naomi and Ruth Project was initiated in an African American church setting after several young women began breastfeeding their babies in church. A survey discovered that many of the church’s elder women had breastfed themselves and were happy and willing to offer advice and support to breastfeeding moms. This discovery sparked a new mentoring relationship in the community. The Indiana Black Breastfeeding Coalition plans to document these relationships and the positive impact they have on mothers and their decision to breastfeed.

North Carolina Breastfeeding Coalition

Learning More about Nature’s Miracle: Researching Human Milk in North Carolina

Research Support in Action

The North Carolina State University (NCSU) laboratory is busy performing rigorous human milk research in order to create more accurate guidelines for human milk storage and the safety of human milk donations. The evidence-based discoveries made may lead to less wasted breast milk in NICU, day care, and home environments as scientists realize that the milk possesses a longer shelf life than previous guidelines suggest. By documenting the step-by-step process by which human milk donations are gathered, processed, tested, and distributed, the North Carolina Breastfeeding Coalition hopes to create further confirmation of the hard science behind the benefits of human milk.

Louisiana Breastfeeding Coalition

Louisiana Nurse Family Partnership: Reaching the Unlikely Breastfeeders

Health Care Support in Action

The Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) Home Visitor program in Louisiana offers a supportive relationship and trustworthy role model to low-income, first-time moms. The voluntary program matches some of Louisiana’s most unlikely breastfeeders with an RN who meets with the new mother weekly or bi-weekly throughout pregnancy and during the child’s first two years. This relationship provides the specialized support many of these mothers need in order to make confident and informed decisions on behalf of their babies, including infant feeding practices. By photographing the positive outcomes of the NFP program, the Louisiana Breastfeeding Coalition hopes to ensure the value of positive professional-client relationships to help mothers reach their breastfeeding goals.

California Breastfeeding Coalition

The California Breastfeeding Story: Becoming Baby-Friendly

Health Care Support in Action

The California Breastfeeding Coalition (CBC) encourages hospitals to create supportive environments for mothers to exclusively breastfeed their infants through the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) and the California Model Hospital Policies. By documenting the BFHI journey through its many phases – Including discovery, development, dissemination, and designation – and highlighting the BFHI Ten Steps, the coalition hopes to capture behind-the-scenes interactions and compelling moments that express the importance of institutional change in breastfeeding practices.

Florida Breastfeeding Coalition

Get Pumped!

Employment Support in Action

As part of The Business Case for Breastfeeding, the Florida Breastfeeding Coalition (FBC) has developed the Breastfeeding Friendly Employer Award. Businesses, hospitals, and schools that provide pumping areas, support, and education services to employees can apply and are awarded gold, silver, and bronze levels. FBC will document these businesses, the services they provide, and the mothers and babies who benefit from them, in an effort to motivate other employers to “Get Pumped!”

Inter Tribal Council of Arizona

Employers for a Healthy New Generation

Employment Support in Action

The Inter Tribal Council of Arizona (ITCA) will showcase successful workplace lactation support by documenting four women – each representing a different tribal organization – utilizing support services and the benefits these policies provide for the employer. The project will feature mothers bringing their babies to work and taking breaks to pump milk or breastfeed directly at a child care facility, as well as a tribal council meeting. By creating images of Native Americans breastfeeding their babies, the ITCA hopes to reach out to this underrepresented population and encourage implementation of workplace breastfeeding support in other tribes and organizations.

The United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) is an independent nonprofit coalition of more than 40 nationally influential professional, educational, and governmental organizations. Representing over half a million concerned professionals and the families they serve, USBC and its member organizations share a common mission to improve the Nation’s health by working collaboratively to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. For more information on USBC, visit www.usbreastfeeding.org.

The state, territorial, and tribal breastfeeding coalitions are multisectoral, grassroots organizations, including representatives from relevant government departments, non-governmental organizations including consumer (parents) groups, and health professional associations. Breastfeeding coalitions have formed independently in all 50 states and in several U.S. territories and tribal organizations. A directory of the coalitions can be found at:

http://www.usbreastfeeding.org/Coalitions/CoalitionsDirectory/tabid/74/Default.aspx

United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC)

2025 M Street, NW, Suite 800

Washington, DC 20036

Phone: (202) 367-1132

Fax: (202) 367-2132

office@usbreastfeeding.org

www.usbreastfeeding.org

The mission of the United States Breastfeeding Committee is to improve the Nation’s health by working collaboratively to protect, promote and support breastfeeding. Donate today!

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Choice or Law?

Can you imagine a place in the world where government puts laws in place to encourage women to breastfeed longer than they currently do in the region?

This is becoming a reality in one of the worlds most populated countries. Indonesia, with 250 million people and one of the most disaster prone countries has started working on laws that would not only encourage breastfeeding longer for mothers, but help ensure babies in the region are safe from illness often passed through dirty water supplies.

The Indonesian government has therefore passed a law which stipulates that all babies should be breastfed exclusively for six months. A fine of up to 100 million rupiah (11,000 dollars) can be imposed next year on any person or organization which stops a mother from doing this.

Laws that people even in the United States think women would benefit from. Including the head of a large scale breastfeeding advocacy group.

Bettina Forbes from Best for Babes said :

What strikes me as key about the Indonesian breastfeeding law as you describe it below, is that it seems like it intends to put pressure on the “booby traps”–cultural and institutional barriers that keep moms from achieving their breastfeeding goals–and not on moms.   Moms don’t need more pressure, what they need is to not be undermined by organizations that violate the WHO Code.   I hope we can interpret this as Indonesia holding companies that violate the WHO Code strictly accountable for negatively impacting the health of mothers and babies.  I hope it means that all hospitals and birthing centers in Indonesia will become designated Baby Friendly.

Traditionally in Indonesia women have exclusively breastfed children, but the recent numbers are falling with more mothers going to work. Between 2006 and 2008 their breastfeeding rates dropped a full 10% across the country. Despite the current law giving all women three months of paid maternity leave most feel pressured to go back to work sooner for fear of losing their job.  Sounds familiar to our country!

According to the Ministry of Health, the new law will also bring tighter regulations over companies supplying formula milk. Producers will not be allowed to offer any incentives which encourage mothers to switch to their milk products in the first six months. (There is an International Code of Marketing for Breast Milk Substitutes, but this has yet to be adopted in many developing countries). At this stage, it is unclear how the new law will be policed, but with malnutrition affecting millions of Indonesia’s children, it is being welcomed as a step in the right direction for improving the health of the youngest.

In short, no formula coupons, free breastfeeding diaper bags from these formula companies, or anything that may sway the decision of the mother to switch before their infant is six months old.

Do you think countries like The United States would benefit from similar laws?

Source: Strollerderby

Social Networking

I recently read a great article in Mothering Magazine called “Breastfeeding Beats the Blues” by Kathleen A. Kendall-Tackett. The author did a fantastic job of using research to bust common myths surrounding postpartum depression and breastfeeding.

Read rest of Article: Daily Momtra

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RALEIGH – State Health Director Jeff Engel has announced the launch of the North Carolina Maternity Center Breastfeeding-Friendly Designation. This initiative recognizes hospitals and birthing centers that adopt the selected policies and practices from the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding that support the initiation, exclusivity and continuation of breastfeeding.

The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding as defined by the World Health Organization are:

1. Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.
2. Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.
3. Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
4. Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth.
5. Show mothers how to breastfeed, and how to maintain lactation even if they should be separated from their infants.
6. Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breast milk unless medically indicated.
7. Practice rooming in – allow mothers and infants to remain together – 24 hours a day.
8. Encourage breastfeeding on demand.
9. Give no artificial teats (also called bottle nipples) or pacifiers to breastfeeding infants.
10. Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic.

The North Carolina Maternity Center Breastfeeding-Friendly Designation is endorsed by the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force and the North Carolina Hospital Association (NCHA). The designation is completely voluntary and there is no cost for applying.

”Hospital staff play an important role in teaching new mothers how to breastfeed their babies,” Bill Pully, NCHA President. “The hospital association recognizes that hospitals have a responsibility to provide new mothers the information, confidence, and skills needed to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding.”

North Carolinians and their organizations, government and businesses are encouraged to recognize breastfeeding’s benefits to mothers and babies in each community by promoting, protecting and supporting breastfeeding in North Carolina. A series of informational webinars will be offered to maternity center administrators on December 2 and 3, 2010. For more information about the initiative and to sign up for the webinar visit: http://www.nutritionnc.com.

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