The Breastfeeding Promotion Consortium (BPC) was established by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Consumer Service (FCS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 1990. It meets twice each year in Washington, DC.

Mission Statement: The Breastfeeding Promotion Consortium will be a forum for dialogue between breastfeeding advocacy groups and Federal agencies to promote, protect, and support breastfeeding.

Six new organizations joined the BPC: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Personnel Management, National Labor Relations Board, Coalition for Improvement of Maternity Services, Lamaze International, and the National Alliance for Hispanic Health. The WIC program's current activities include a project called "Using Loving Support to Build a Breastfeeding Friendly Community" in which 20 WIC state agencies collaborate with traditional breastfeeding partners and non-traditional community partners to address barriers to breastfeeding locally. Some of the peer counseling funds are usable for referral to a lactation consultant. LCs may wish to contact their local WIC agency to see if professional LC services are needed and reimbursable in their area, especially since 49% of infants in the US receive WIC benefits. WIC's long range goal is to institutionalize peer counseling as a core service in WIC and is creating an effective evidence-based model to structure peer counseling programs to be both cost effective and manageable.

Selected Organization Updates:

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): The AAP will be publishing the new revision of its infant feeding policy in the February issue of Pediatrics. Information on the content is embargoed until then. ILCA has been invited to send a representative to the AAP's Breastfeeding Promotion in Physicians' Office Practices (BPPOP) advisory committee for phase III which involves breastfeeding curriculum in medical school and residency programs. AAP and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) will be jointly publishing Breastfeeding Handbook for Physicians this summer. The AAP's Section on Breastfeeding publishes a newsletter three times a year online at the AAP breastfeeding web pages.

Baby Friendly USA: 42 hospitals in the US are currently designated as Baby Friendly with 8 to 10 assessments planned for 2005. A collaboration with Best Start Social Marketing, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Office on Women's Health (OWH), and Maternal Child Health Bureau (MCHB) assessed current maternity care practices regarding barriers to implementation of the 10 Steps. Materials are being developed to illustrate how hospitals have overcome these barriers.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): The Nutrition and Physical Activity Program to Prevent Obesity and Other Chronic Diseases is designed to help states prevent obesity and other chronic diseases by addressing two closely related factors - poor nutrition and inadequate physical activity. The program supports states with developing and implementing science-based nutrition and physical activity interventions. The program's major goals are balancing caloric intake and expenditure; increasing physical activity; improving nutrition through increased consumption of fruits and vegetables; reducing television time; and increasing breastfeeding. States who are beginning implementation of these goals include: Colorado, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Washington. States that are just beginning to build capacity are

• Arizona
• Iowa
• Kentucky
• Maine
• Maryland
• Michigan
• Missouri
• Montana
• New Mexico
• New York
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Texas
• Vermont
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin

CDC has a guidance document for states to reference when planning how to use their obesity funds to administer breastfeeding activities. ILCA members living in any of these states are encouraged to check with the contact person identified at the URL below to see if breastfeeding has been or will be included in the use of the obesity funding grants. This presents a unique opportunity to secure funding for breastfeeding promotion and support in these states.

(Check with the contact person identified on this page: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/state_programs/index.htm.)

CDC will establish an ongoing national system to monitor and evaluate hospital practices related to breastfeeding. Data collection will start in 2006. With the new availability of exclusive breastfeeding data from the National Immunization Survey, CDC is working with the Healthy People 2010 committee to add a new specific objective for exclusive breastfeeding. This objective is in final review and would be a 60% exclusive breastfeeding rate at 3 months and a 30% exclusive breastfeeding rate at 6 months. WHO will be releasing the new international growth charts based on breastfed children in October 2005. Before its release, CDC will sponsor a workshop on use of these charts in the USA.

National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy (NABA): NABA discussed the ongoing concerns regarding contamination of powdered infant formula with Enterobacter sakazakii and Salmonella. European agencies have recommended that any infant under 4 weeks of age not be fed powdered formulas. NABA will be conducting its third Code training workshop July 1-2 at the LLLI conference in Washington, DC. ILCA members interested in learning more about the Code and Code monitoring can call 781.893.3553 or Marshalact@aol.com.

Office on Women's Health (OWH): The National Breastfeeding Awareness campaign has received over $7 million in donated media. ILCA members may wish to secure the free 18 x 24" posters of all of the ads as well as the free breastfeeding publications which can be ordered by calling the National Women's Health Information Center at 800.994.9662. The publications include:

• An Easy Guide to Breastfeeding
• An Easy Guide to Breastfeeding for Spanish Women (in Spanish)
• An Easy Guide to Breastfeeding for American Indian and Alaska Native Families
• An Easy Guide to Breastfeeding for African American Women
• An Easy Guide to Breastfeeding for Chinese Women (in Chinese)

All mothers in the US can call the toll free number 800.994.9662 for help with breastfeeding.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): The EPA is developing an internal lactation support program

Office of Personnel Management (OPM): The OPM provides guidance on personnel matter for federal employees. It is developing a guide book on lactation program recommendations for all employees of the federal government.

US Breastfeeding Committee (USBC): The USBC with funding from MCHB will be developing an issue paper on breastfeeding and oral health and a white paper on the safe and appropriate use of human milk substitutes in the US.

National Alliance for Hispanic Health: supports a toll free helpline with bilingual health specialists who provide basic information on a number of health topics including breastfeeding. 866.783.2645. I asked that they consider linking to ILCA's website and provided them with the ILCA information kit that included the Spanish Breastfeeding Glossary. This glossary was well received by the entire BPC.

National WIC Association (NWA): NWA is a voluntary non-profit organization founded in 1983 to promote quality services within the WIC program. NWA has released its new position paper on breastfeeding with 7 recommendations along with the rationale and suggestions for implementation of each. ILCA members may wish to secure a copy of this fine document for use not only in relation with WIC but also for policy development. www.nwica.org

Also of interest to ILCA members is the new publication Protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding in Europe: a blueprint for action. This document is a model plan that outlines the actions a national or regional plan for improving breastfeeding should cover. It is available for download here: Breastfeeding promotion in Europe