In spite of the criticism of the Healthy People breastfeeding objectives appearing here on Lactnet, we have a real opportunity to make some progress in breastfeeding promotion and support. Each state has a Healthy People State Coordinator which can be found at http://healthypeople.gov/2020/consortium/stateCoordinators.aspx#m. These are the people responsible for making HP2020 happen in their state. Anyone who is interested may wish to contact their state coordinator and ask what plans are in place for working on the breastfeeding objectives. We can offer to work with these people and their projects. If there are no plans in place then who better than us to help start things happening. The 3 new objectives are especially important; increase the proportion of employers that have worksite lactation support programs, reduce the proportion of breastfed newborns who receive formula supplementation within the first 2 days of life, and increase the proportion of live births that occur in facilities that provide recommended care for lactating mothers and their babies. 


We have also had another significant event happen this week relative to breastfeeding in the United States. The Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill has passed with some significant strengthening of breastfeeding support within the WIC program. Anyone working with or for WIC will want to look at this carefully to see how the funding can be used most effectively.


Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA







 

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