News article

American Public Health Association approves new breastfeeding position paper

November 6, 2007

(Washington, DC) At its annual meeting, the American Public Health Association approved a sweeping position paper on breastfeeding, its first comprehensive stance on the topic since 1982. Citing recent research and policy statements from other leading heath organizations, “A Call to Action on Breastfeeding, a Fundamental Public Health Issue” argues forcefully that the US falls well short of globally recognized imperatives.

The APHA breastfeeding position paper is available on APHA’s website.

The policy affirms “that exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months with continued breastfeeding for at least the first one to two years of life, is the biologic norm, and that all alternative feeding methods carry health risks in comparison, with rare exceptions.”

Highlights include a call for more hospitals and health centers to achieve the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative, better workplace protections, and a curb on the aggressive marketing of infant formula, in compliance with the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. The statement notes that fewer than 3% of US hospitals are certified Baby-friendly, a WHO/UNICEF initiative that endorses ten evidence-based practices that support breastfeeding.

The position paper supports legislation and programs that would enable women to succeed at breastfeeding in the US, including: “protection for breastfeeding in public, paid maternity leave and worksite lactation protection, access to skilled lactation care and services covered by third party payers, adequate funding to meet Healthy People goals across all socioeconomic sectors of the US, adequate funding and support to carry out the recommendations from the HHS Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding, [and] compliance with ethical formula marketing as set forth in the International Code . . .”

The policy had broad-based support in APHA, and its three authors came from three different sections of APHA: Melissa Bartick, MD, MS of Massachusetts (Maternal/Child Health), Miriam Labbok, MD, MPH of UNC Chapel Hill (International Health), and Lissa Ong, RD, MPH, a nutritionist in San Francisco (Food and Nutrition). Bartick is also current chair of the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition. The full policy will be available online at APHA’s website in January, 2008.

See APHA’s press release on its website.