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Taking Action to Ensure Breastfeeding Breastfeeding through Legislation/Public Health Policy, and International Documents
La Leche League 18th
International Conference
Strength through Diversity - Creating One Breastfeeding World
San Francisco, California, USA
July 3-6, 2003
Sunday, July 6 - Session
#318
Global Issues - Taking Action to Ensure Breastfeeding through Legislation/Public
Health Policy, and International Documents
Presenters: Randa Saadeh,
Linda Sanei and Miriam Labbok
Facilitators: Gisèle Laviolle, Audrey Naylor and Rachel O'Leary
Miriam Labbok gave an overview of the UN Millenium Development Goals.
This is an initiative endorsed in September 2000 by all 191 UN member states
which protects breastfeeding in one of its key targets: to reduce
by half the proportion of people who suffer from malnutrition through
the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding. Labbok then formally acknowledged
Dr. Audrey Naylor's LLLI Special Lifetime Achievement Award, presented
during this conference, by bestowing upon her the last Golden Bow pin
from the initial launch of the Golden Bow Initiative (Linda Sanei talked
about this Initiative).
Linda Sanei talked about
international documents and initiatives that directly or indirectly
affect breastfeeding. Following are some examples. Save the Children
brought out a new Initiative, the Saving Newborn Lives Initiative, in
2000 as a strategy to focus on promoting early initiation and exclusive
breastfeeding for the first six months. In May 2002, UNICEF issued a
call to people throughout the world to support the Global Movement for
Children, stipulating ten steps that need to be present in every child's
life. Included in these steps are caring for every child, and reducing infant
mortality rates and child malnutrition by a third. In 2002, another
initiative was launched by UNICEF and WABA called the Golden Bow Initiative.
The Golden Bow is a lesson in the protection, promotion and support
of breastfeeding. The gold color symbolizes that breastfeeding is the
gold standard and each part of the bow (loops, knot, ribbons) carries
a special message. For an electronic copy of this presentation, please
email Rmagalhaes at llli.org.
Randa Saadeh gave a presentation on the Global Strategy on Infant and
Young Child Feeding. Given that inappropriate feeding is responsible
for at least one-third of malnutrition, the strategy aims to improve
the feeding of infants and young children, and to increase the commitment
of governments, society groups and international organizations to promote
the health and nutrition of children. WHO plans to achieve these aims
through five operational targets:
- Comprehensive policy and
programming supported by a multisectoral national commitment, through
a coordinator and national committee, and policy and standards
- Enacted legislation on
international code and maternity protection
- Health services and training
updated for BFHI, implementation of step 10, and development of pre-service
training
- Community support for
the mother, including breastfeeding, child care and birth spacing;
national communications and social marketing activities; and monitoring
and evaluating all sectors and civil society levels
- Care for infants and young
children in exceptionally difficult circumstances, such as HIV, for
which a framework for action is needed, and guidelines for emergency
situations.
In order to achieve the goals
of the Strategy it is necessary to have the involvement and coordination
from many sectors and stakeholders of society: national authorities,
international agencies, obstetricians, lactation consultants, pre-service
educators, etc. All of society needs to work together to achieve the
goals of the Global Strategy.
Following are the actions
presented during the session:
A. UNtold Story Campaign
Facilitated by Miriam Labbok
This group composed a letter
that recommends changes to the language of the UNtold Story Campaign:
Working for Children's Health.
Paragraph 1:
Change the last sentence to say the following: Access to this information
enables women to make informed decisions concerning pregnancy and infant
feeding. Counseling will focus on ensuring optimal infant feeding practices
and reducing the stigma and fear related to HIV.
Paragraph 2:
Guidelines for ARV should be made consistent with the latest UN AIDS
recommendations. It should be pointed out that there are many alternate
sources of donations and funding. Broadening the base of support will
eliminate reliance on a single industry and avoid conflicts of interest.
Paragraph 3:
The heading should be changed to "Infant Feeding." This section
does not reflect the current UN guidelines for optimizing infant feeding
in the presence of HIV. It does not address the issue of balancing risks
(morbidity and mortality due to HIV vs. morbidity and mortality due
to lack of breastfeeding).
Combine the last two bullets:
Counseling and supporting HIV-positive women about infant feeding choices
which are based on full information and lack of commercial bias.
Closing paragraph of letter:
We strongly urge you to make,
at the very least, these essential changes which are necessary to bring
your MTCT overview statement into compliance with international policy
and research.
We look forward to seeing
a revised draft of the Overview Statement at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely,
LLLI
Cc: Miriam Labbok, UNICEF
Randa Saadeh, WHO
B. Pre-service education
Facilitated by Gisèle Laviolle
1) Write a draft letter addressed
to WHO/UNICEF with reference to the need for pre-service education to
be among the top priorities in the organization, in the context of the
"Global Strategy"
2) Circulate the draft to other organizations and encourage them to
do the same (IBFAN/WABA)
C. Follow-up to Martigney meeting on Health Interventions in Emergencies
Facilitated by Audrey Naylor
The action is to compose
draft talking points to encourage individuals in key organizations to
write to the Martigney committee working on a document that will state
the key interventions during emergency situations.
Once all the facts are gathered
about the agencies/people involved in making the decision, members of
this group will send out talking points to the following groups via
a e-news:
- CORE
- Interaction
- La Leche League International
- ENN Online- organizations that endorsed IFE guidelines
- Countries
D. Follow-up to Martigney meeting on Health Interventions in Emergencies
Facilitated by Rachel O'Leary
Designed a letter, signed
by the members of this group, to call attention to the omission of breastfeeding
as a key intervention in emergency situations during the Martigney meeting.
Letter:
Dear …
It has come to our attention
that breastfeeding was not included in the top priorities of the CORE
Interventions Group (Martigney) responding to emergency situations,
when breastfeeding is a comprehensive solution for the most vulnerable
segment of the population at risk. No single solution is more life-sustaining
to the infant or toddler. It significantly lowers the risk and severity
of diarrhea, pneumonia and other killer diseases. It is often regarded
as the baby's first immunization. Deprivation of breastfeeding can compound
the effects of any emergency. It is a complete food providing excellent
nutrition and safe water for infants and toddlers at minimal cost. It
encourages families to value women.
We are a group of parents,
health professionals and volunteers who have come from many countries
to meet in San Francisco. This setting reminds us that emergencies occur
in all communities and that breastfeeding prevents diseases in developed
and developing countries.
Sincerely,
Will be signed by the individuals
who were at this table.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:34:03 UTC 2007.
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