The Office on Women's Health (OWH) continues to partner
with other agencies and organizations to focus attention on the importance of
breastfeeding. Below are some of the breastfeeding promotion initiatives and activities
the Office on Women's Health is involved in.
A subcommittee of the Federal Interagency Working Group on
Women's Health and the Environment developed the HHS
Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding, (PDF file, 239 Kb) released in October, 2000 by
the Surgeon General, representing the first comprehensive framework on breastfeeding for
the Nation. The Blueprint focuses attention on the importance of breastfeeding and
recommends action steps for the health care system, families, the community, researchers
and the workplace to promote breastfeeding. The framework also identifies racial and
ethnic disparities that exist in breastfeeding, and reveals extremely low rates that exist
in African American women. The plan was developed by several organizations in the medical,
business, women's health, advocacy, and academic communities and promotes a plan for
breastfeeding based on education, training, awareness, support, and research.
Specifically, the plan lays out a framework based on the recommendation that infants be
exclusively breastfed for the first 4-6 months of a baby's life, preferably 6 months.
The OWH partnered with La Leche League International to train the
Information Specialists of the National Women's Health Information
Center (NWHIC) to support the Office's new Breastfeeding Helpline.
Information Specialists can help callers with common breastfeeding issues such as nursing
positions, questions about pumping and storage, and provide the support moms and dads need
to make breastfeeding a success. The Helpline also provides tips for working moms who
would like to continue breastfeeding, and offer suggestions for financial support. The
Helpline, which operates in both English and Spanish, is open to nursing mothers as well
as their partners, families, prospective parents, health professionals and institutions
seeking to better educate new mothers about the benefits of breastfeeding.
With the launch of the new Breastfeeding Helpline, NWHIC
also launched the new web page Breastfeeding - Best
for Baby. Best for Mom. The new section was designed to provide practical, helpful
breastfeeding information and to help improve breastfeeding rates in all women. Online
information is available in English, Spanish and Chinese and includes questions and
answers about breastfeeding, coping with breastfeeding challenges and more.
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office on
Women's Health (OWH) has been funded to carry out the recommendations of the HHS Blueprint for
Action on Breastfeeding, (2000) (PDF file, 239 Kb)
into a National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign to promote breastfeeding among first-time
parents (mothers and fathers) who would not normally breastfeed their baby. The overall
goal of the campaign is to increase the proportion of mothers who breastfeed their babies
in the early postpartum period to 75% and those within 6 months postpartum to 50% by the
year 2010 (Healthy People 2010). The campaign aims to empower women to commit to
breastfeeding and to highlight new research that shows that babies who are exclusively
breastfed for 6 months are less likely to develop ear infections, diarrhea, respiratory
illnesses, and may be less likely to develop childhood obesity. Besides trying to raise
initiation rates, the campaign will also stress the importance of exclusive breastfeeding
for 6 months.
As a part of the National Breastfeeding Campaign, a
comprehensive 3-year media campaign will be launched in 2004. The Advertising Council has
selected the National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign for official sponsorship. OWH will
work in close coordination with the Ad Council to implement the campaign.
The media campaign will be based on the goals, objectives,
and recommendations of the HHS Blueprint for
Action on Breastfeeding, (PDF file, 239 Kb) and will primarily target first time
parents who would not normally breastfeed.
The campaign will be marketed in partnership with
strategically selected organizations and will employ state-of-the-art communication
techniques through a variety of channels and strategies like public service announcements
(television and radio), bus stop posters, billboards, educational pamphlets and articles
in community newspapers, parenting, and women's magazines and websites.
Eighteen community-based
demonstration projects (CDPs) throughout the United States will work in coordination
with the Office on Women's Health and the Advertising Council to implement the National
Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign at the local level. The CDPs, which include breastfeeding
coalitions, hospitals, universities, and other organizations have been funded to offer
breastfeeding services, provide outreach to their communities, train healthcare providers
on breastfeeding, implement the media aspects of the campaign, and track breastfeeding
rates in their communities.
After announcing the HHS Blueprint for Action on
Breastfeeding, the OWH received a tremendous response from consumers, organizations, and
public health professionals concerned about the disparities in breastfeeding rates among
white and African American mothers. To address this issue, the Office on Women's Health
has partnered with the African-American Breastfeeding Alliance, Inc. (AABA), a
community-based non-profit organization whose purpose is to educate the African American
community about the benefits of breastfeeding through education, counseling, training, and
advocacy. This community partnership with AABA began in December of 2000 and the effort is
in its strategic planning phase. For more information about the African American
Breastfeeding partnership, e-mail aaba@att.net.
