Gee / Fmily Life Blce w Both breasteeding advocates and breasteeding detractorstalkaboutbreasteedingasachoice.Butthis lan gua ge ai ls to apprec iat e tha t most women do not haveasourceounbiasedinormation,ortheeconomic, social,andclinicalsupportandresourcesneededtoreely choosewhetherornottheywillbreasteedbeyondthe rstewweeksotheirbabies’lives.Todaywomenaround theglobear ephysicallysepa ratedrom theirbabiesater birthandcarryouttheirmaternalandoccupationalroles in socia l and cultural envir onments that syste mati cally limit the control the y ha ve ov er their bodi es , spa ce, time and liv es. The continued rig idi ty o gen der roles result s in a societ y- wi de ail ur e to support mo the rs, particularlywhentheycombinemotherhoodwithpaid empl oy ment. We ail to support caregivers or thei r labor , includ ing breas teed ing labor , and deva lue their contributions,but atthesame timewe ailtosuppo rtthe emplo yed mothe rs’ needs or mate rnity leav e, exib le time , child care, and work -plac e breasteeding support. Thislackosupportresultsinseriousdrainsonwomen’s time,energy,andresources.Weneedtopromotegender role ex pecta ti ons or wo men and men, mothers and athers,andallworkersthatarerealisticandsupported bypolicies;weneedworkplacesupportsthatreducethe rolestrainandconictthatworkingmothersexperience; weneedaordable,qualitychildcarethatissupportiveo brea steed ingorlocatedinplacesthatmakeitpossible or empl oy ed women to actual ly br east eed; and we needlawsthatensuregenderequityinwages,benets, andsaeworkenvironments. Sour ce: Pai ge Hal l Smit h Co-coordinator, WABA Gender Working Group; Associate Professor of Public Health Education UNC Greensboro; Director, Center for Women’s Health and Wellness Evimetl Imct w Breastmilkneedsno proc essing ,no packag ing, requ ires nopreparationandproducesnowasteorpollution.Itis delivereddirectlyandondemandandinthiswayhasno negativeimpactontheenvironment. w Br ea st e ed ing saves na ti onal ec onomie s mi ll ions o do ll ars on importing cost ly br eastmi lk subs ti tutes, eeding bott les and teats. F amil y budget s benet as we ll , sa vi ng money on in a nt e eding pr od ucts and ewe r health /hospi tal visit s due to compl icati ons rom breastmilksubstitutes. w Ther eha sbeenan increasin gi nterestinthe linkbe tween breast eeding and non-communicable diseases such as obesi ty.A WHOmulticent re growth reerence study shows that babie s exclusive ly breas tedor six month s ar e subsequen tly leaner than or mul a- ed babies. The hypo theses orwhythis isarecurrent lybeingexplor ed, butmayhavesomethingtodowiththesel-regulation o mil k int ake , di erent components o the mi lks and their eect s on inan t deve lopme nt (pro tein, bioact ive actors),andeedingbehaviour. Sour ce: Al is on L innecar Convenor, IBFAN’s Global Working Group on Contaminants http://www.ibfan.org/art/Obesity_IF-ENGLISH.pdf Ce Mitig w Breasteeding is a valuable natural resource that is threatened by aggressive marketing tactics o manu a cturers o br eastmi lk su bs titutes. Th e Co de mattersmoretodaythaneverbeore.Withthemarket growingatsteadyintervalseachyear(10%),companies continuetocompeteandmarketaggressively.Aneasy “targ et” or these comp anies is breas teed ing, because there is noprotect ionunless weapplytheInternational CodeoMarketingoBreastmilkSubstitutes w Promotion o breastmilk substitu tes has become moresubtleovertimeandcompaniesnowutilisenew media such asFacebookorTwittertoenticeevenmore con sumers with health claims suc h as “orti ed with... DHA,probiotics,etc”whichtranslatesto“betterhealth”. Peopleneed toknowthat therearet oolstopro tectthem rommisleadingclaims.TheCodeisonesuchtool,and youcanhelpmonitortheseormulacompanies!Visitthe IBF ANwebsiteormor einormation–www. iban.org Source:AnneliesAllain Director IBFAN-ICD C “IBFAN Code Violation s – How Companies BREAK the Rules – a 4 page overview ” – 2010 Te Stes o Implementing changes in hospital practices can be difcu lt. Communications is the key . It is essential that a mul ti- lev el, mul ti-d isc ipl ina ry team is ul ly eng age d in the pl anni ng and impl ementati on o the needed cha nges, but how do you get suc h a div ers e gr oup to makeadecision?Andonceadecisionismade,howdo you get the rest o the st a to actua ll y adhere to the propos ed cha nge s? Res ear ch has sho wn tha t creation oatimewhenolkscanchatandcanbothdiscussthe wa y orw ard and dis cuss their ru str ati ons speeds the processalong.Sometimesthisisaseasyasgatheringat ateabreakorsometimesitisbettertoormalizerounds onthetopicobreasteeding.Anotherissueisthatsta maynotasyetbeonboardwiththeneedorexclusive bre ast ee ding. One handy communication strate gy is topostshortmessagesinthetoilet!Theplacement,o course,shouldbeappropriatetotheuser,butitshould be at eye hei ght . The mes sag e should be cha nge d at reg ula r interv als . Ano ther communica tio ns approa ch us ed at our hospit al was a we ekly secr et question, conc ealed in a stu e d toy . Whomev er o und the toy andcorrectlyansweredthequestionwonasmallprize orrecognitionatstameeting,andhadtheprivilegeo decidingthenextweek’sTen-Step-relatedquestion,and hidingthe toy . Becreativ e!Commun icationaidsinTen Stepimplementation. Source:MiriamLabbok,MD,MPH FACPM, IBCLC, FABM, Professor of the Practice of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Director, Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute BrEaSTFEEdInG HoT TopICS