HHS Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding

[Kuester, Sarah]

Please pardon the cross-posting.

Hello.  Below is a press release by the Office
of the Surgeon General announcing the availability
of the "HHS Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding,"
a national framework to promote breastfeeding and 
optimal breastfeeding practices.  For additional
information on breastfeeding see the new CDC
website at http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/.

Thank you,
Sarah Kuester
Public Health Nutritionist
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
sak2 at cdc.gov 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: http://www.4women.gov/breastfeeding/press.htm

Office of the Surgeon General
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Carol Krause, (202)
205-2551
Monday, October 30, 2000 Office on Women's Health

SURGEON GENERAL RELEASES FIRST COMPREHENSIVE
FRAMEWORK TO INCREASE BREASTFEEDING RATES AND
PROMOTE OPTIMAL BREASTFEEDING PRACTICES

Washington, October 30, 2000 - Recognizing the considerable
scientific evidence that states breastfeeding is one of the most
important contributors to infant health, the Office of the U.S.
Surgeon General today released the first comprehensive national
framework to promote breastfeeding and optimal breastfeeding
practices. The HHS Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding was
developed by health and scientific experts from 14 federal agencies
and 23 health care professional organizations, including the
American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of
Family Physicians.

During the past 15 years, the Office of the Surgeon General has
highlighted the public health importance of breastfeeding through
numerous workshops and publications. Scientific evidence
suggests that breastfeeding provides a range of benefits for an
infant's growth, immunity and development. In addition,
breastfeeding has also been shown to improve maternal health. 

The Blueprint for Action released today promotes a plan for
breastfeeding based on education, training, awareness, support
and research. Specifically, the plan lays out a framework based on
the recommendation that infants be exclusively breastfed during the
first four to six months of life, preferably for a full six months. The
plan also suggests that, ideally, breastfeeding should continue
through the first year of life. 

Despite the many benefits of breastfeeding, statistics reveal that 64
percent of American mothers breastfeed in the early postpartum
period, with only 29 percent still breastfeeding six months after birth.
Racial and ethnic disparities in breastfeeding are wide, revealing
extremely low rates among African-American women. In 1998, 45
percent of African-American mothers breastfed their infants in the
early postpartum period; 66 percent of Hispanic mothers and 68
percent of white mothers breastfed. Only 19 percent of
African-American mothers were still breastfeeding at six months,
compared to 28 percent of Hispanic mothers and 31 percent of
white mothers. That same year, 54 percent of low-income Asian
and Pacific Islander children and 59 percent of American Indian and
Alaska Native children were ever breastfed. 

"Low breastfeeding rates documented in the Blueprint for Action
are a serious public health challenge, particularly in certain minority
communities," said David Satcher, M.D., U.S. Surgeon General
and Assistant Secretary for Health. "With scientific evidence
indicating that breastfeeding can play an important role in an
infant's health, the time has come for us to work together to promote
optimal breastfeeding practices. Each of us, at all levels of the
public and private sectors, must now turn these recommendations
into programs that best suit the needs of our own communities." 

Healthy People 2010, the nation's health agenda for the next
decade, has set an objective to increase the proportion of all
mothers who breastfeed in the early postpartum period to 75
percent. "The Healthy People objectives will be realized only when
we work together to put in place culturally appropriate strategies to
promote breastfeeding, with particular emphasis on education and
support from health care professionals, employers and family
members, especially fathers and grandmothers," said Wanda
Jones, Dr.P.H., Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health (Women's
Health) and director of the Office on Women's Health.

The Blueprint offers action steps for the health care system,
families, the community, researchers and the workplace, to better
focus attention on the importance of breastfeeding. It recommends
that health care professionals who provide maternal and child care
are trained on the basics of lactation and breastfeeding counseling;
that women who return to work after childbirth should have access
to childcare facilities or private rooms on-site to accommodate
breastfeeding; that social support and information resources be
established for women such as hotlines and peer counseling; and
that research be conducted on issues surrounding breastfeeding.

Scientific evidence states that human milk contains an abundance
of factors that are active against infection. Breastfed infants,
compared with formula-fed infants, produce enhanced immune
responses to polio, tetanus, diptheria, and common respiratory
infections. Recent research also suggests that breastfeeding
reduces the risk of chronic diseases among children, including
diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma, and
childhood cancer.

Mothers also benefit from breastfeeding, including less postpartum
bleeding, earlier return to pre-pregnancy weight, a possible
reduced risk of ovarian cancer and premenopausal breast cancer,
and positive hormonal, physical and psychosocial effects. The
Blueprint recommends that mothers with certain conditions,
including Hepatitis C, substance abuse problems, some
environmental exposures, metabolic disorders and breast implants
should check with their doctor before breastfeeding. Women with
HIV/AIDS and human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) should
not breastfeed. 

The Blueprint was developed by the Subcommittee on
Breastfeeding, under the auspices of the HHS Environmental
Health Policy Committee, including members of the Federal
Interagency Working Group on Women's Health and the
Environment, coordinated by the Office on Women's Health. 

The full text of the HHS Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding can
be found on a new specialty section on breastfeeding on the Web
site of the National Women's Health Information Center
(www.4woman.gov) or through its toll-free telephone service at
1-800-994WOMAN (TDD: 1-888-220-5446). For a brief look at
some of the many programs and services currently promoting and
supporting breastfeeding within health care, work sites, and
communities nationwide, visit the Web site developed by the
Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention at http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding. 

                                                     ###

Agencies that collaborated to develop HHS Blueprint for Action 
on Breastfeeding include the Administration for Children and 
Families, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Agency 
for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, 
Food and Drug Administration, Health Resources and Services 
Administration, Indian Health Service, National Institutes of Health, 
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office of HIV/AIDS 
Policy, Office of Planning and Evaluation, the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

>From the private sector; American Academy of Family Physicians, 

American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association of
Health Plans, American College of Nurse-Midwives, American 
Hospital Association, American College of Obstetricians and 
Gynecologists, American Nurses Association, Black Women's 
Health project, Morgan State University, National Black Nurses 
Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, National 
Medical Association, Washington Business Group on Health,
Washington state Department of Health, the United States 
Breastfeeding Committee, and the University of Rochester 
School of Medicine.