Within the US government, cabinet positions are political appointments and
have little to do with qualifications for the job. Whomever gets appointed as
the secretary of health will have been a major campaign contributor or a friend
who is owed a favor. NABA had worked fairly hard the last time around to
advocate for a Secretary of Health and Human Services who would be knowledgeable
about breastfeeding and learned that people like that are usually working at a
lower level within an agency. This is the same with the Surgeon General
appointment or any of the appointed government positions.

I represent ILCA to the US Department of Agriculture's Breastfeeding
Promotion Consortium and I represent NABA REAL to the US Breastfeeding Committee. Both
of these organizations allow the breastfeeding community direct access to
federal government agencies where we have been able to put breastfeeding on the
radar screen and advocate a little at a time. It is slow work but
accomplishments have been made:
- request for the collection and use of breastfeeding statistics not gathered
by a formula company. CDC now collects this data in its National Immunization
Survey
- request for a Healthy People 2010 exclusive breastfeeding goal
- definition of breastfeeding for use in multiple areas for tracking health
outcomes
- preservation of the National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign, not in its
original form but at least not totally eliminated

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA

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