Linda Shaw wrote:

>Funding would be needed; government grants & coordination and involvement of
>all bodies involved in BF promotion would also be needed.
>Anyone have any ideas about who and how such a project might be started?

A big BF promotion campaign, funded by the Food and Consumer Service of the
United States Department of Agriculture and Best Start Social Marketing *is
starting* in ten pilot states in the US during 1997 World Breastfeeding
Week!  The project will be launched in Nevada, West Virginia, Arkansas, New
Jersey, New York, California, Ohio, Mississippi, Iowa and the Chicksaw
Nation.

While the project is being launched through state WIC programs, the
campaign will include mass-media including TV, radio & print PSAs and info;
therefore, it should reach all segments of the population.

States who are not among the pilot group have been invited to join in the
training which will occur in April of 1997.  If you are in the US, but not
in a pilot state, you may want to contact your state WIC program to
encourage your state to send a team to the conference.  If you are in a
pilot state, I encourage you to contact your state WIC program to see how
you can help support the project's launch.  [One concern I have heard
voiced about this project is that it may encourage many more women to try
BF, but if they are not aware of their resources for BF help, the project
may backfire.]


Cindy Turner-Maffei, MA, IBCLC
Massachusetts, USA