nBreastfeeding ews page

August 2002
The Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, initiated a program this year to showcase best practices in public health from around the country.
For the month of August, the featured topic was the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. The Boston Medical Center is presented as an example of a s uccessful implementation of the initiative that resulted in increased breastfeeding initiation rates. (Is there perhaps a hospital somewhere in New Mexico that aspires to be truly Baby-Friendly?)

December 2007 WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK
Each year, the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action sponsors an international celebration of breastfeeding, emphasizing a particular issue that impacts breastfeeding around the world. In 2008 the slogan for WBW will be: " Mother Support: Going for the Gold. In conjunction with the Olympics next August, WBW 2008 calls for greater support for mothers in achieving the gold standard of infant feeding: breastfeeding exclusively for six months, and providing appropriate complementary foods with continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond."
Please visit the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) for comprehensive information about worldwide breastfeeding promotion and for details of the theme and goals for 2008 visit the World Breastfeeding Week site.

Based on this report, the CDC makes the following recommendation: "Because the health benefits of breastfeeding are well established and the risk for WNV transmission
is unknown, these findings do not suggest a change in breastfeeding recommendations."
The full published report is available on the CDC website.

May 2006
Gov. Romney Kills Ban on Formula Marketing
The following summary came in email form from
the American Academy of Pediatrics, Section on Breastfeeding:
In a setback for Massachusetts families, the
Public Health Council allowed hospitals to
continue participating in formula company
marketing campaigns. The decision...(continue)

October 2005
The American Academy of Pediatrics has published a
new policy statement on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
In this statement a "separate but proximate sleeping
environment is recommended" and a suggestion that consideration be given to "offering a pacifier at nap time
and bedtime." The breastfeeding community has not been
entirely supportive. Read statements from ABM , LLLI,
and ILCA

October 2002
On October 4 The Center for Disease Control (CDC) published a report of a breastfeeding woman who received a blood transfusion in the post partum period which was contaminated with West Nile Virus (WNV). The woman went on to develop West Nile meningo-encephalitis from which she has now fully recovered. Studies on her baby indicate that the virus was passed through the mother's breastmilk. However, the infant has continued to thrive and has not become ill.