The “ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN: Support Women to Breastfeed” stems from a global initiative launched by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) – Asia. The campaign cites some staggering statistics: every hour 700 babies in their first year of life die. Of those, 450 are less than one month old. (Those of us in the United States should not be duped into a false sense of security — in the most recent comparison made with data for the year 2004, our infant mortality rate ranked 29th in the world, tied with Poland and Slovakia. The death rate in 2005 was …read more

What if politicians learned of something they could do to lower health care costs yet improve infant and maternal health at the same time? Doesn’t that sound like something everyone could and should get behind? The United States Breastfeeding Committee has drafted a petition to ask President-Elect Barack Obama to make breastfeeding a high priority in his administration. The petition details the benefits of breastfeeding, outlines the progress that needs to be made in the United States, and highlights 10 concrete steps the President-Elect could take to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. It only takes a moment to add your …read more