These guidelines were produced by the World Health Organization Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development and HIV, in collaboration with UNAIDS, UNFPA and UNICEF.

To download a pdf version, please click here.

WABA mourns the passing of Kathy Baker of La Leche League International She was a certified Lactation Consultant and had worked for over 30 years with the LaLeche League as a leader She passed away peacefully on Thursday 27 May, 2010. Kathy was instrumental in the training of the first group of LLLI Peer Cousellor Programme Administrators and Counselors in Malaysia just this year and is a mentor to many counselors around the world.

Birthing the World, an international conference on perinatal care organised by ASPQ brings together a programme that is “both highly scientific and purposefully interdisciplinary in terms of intention, format and implementation”. It will highlight the importance of various professional and community groups working together through the pre-, intra- and post-natal stages for improved performance. Some 150 abstracts have been received by the Scientific Committee. The event will be held in Quebec City, Canada, from 25-26 November 2010. www.birthingtheworld.com

(CNN) -- If most new moms would breastfeed their babies for the first six months of life, it would save nearly 1,000 lives and billions of dollars each year, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

"The United States incurs $13 billion in excess costs annually and suffers 911 preventable deaths per year because our breastfeeding rates fall far below medical recommendations," the report said.

The World Health Organization says infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life "to achieve optimal growth, development and health." The WHO is not alone in its recommendations.

To read the full article from CNN, please click here

The academic staff at the University and College level are expected to inform the public in a comprehensible fashion about the results ensuing from grants to their subject area. Some researchers are clever at doing this whereas others are reluctant to talk with journalists. For occasional researchers the temptation can prove too great to appear in the limelight.

We have recently seen an example of the latter where communication has gone astray. A researcher from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has created confusion related to the conscientious work involved in motivating mothers to breastfeed their infants.

"Translated into English from the Norwegian newspaper VG., Debatt pp. 46-47, February 2, 2010". Click here for the full article.

A new statement issued jointly by UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and Pan American Health Organization, reminds relief workers, healthcare professionals, and the public that in an emergency such as the Haiti earthquake, the key to survival of all infants, including orphans, is breastfeeding. When a child is motherless or separated from his or her mother, wet nursing, that is, direct breastfeeding from another lactating mother, is the safest feeding option. Since the breastfeeding rate in Haiti is very high, there is a good likelihood of being able to find wet nurses for large numbers of motherless infants.

UNICEF, WHO and PAHO have recommended wet nursing, also called “cross nursing” or “shared breastfeeding,” for infants without mothers to “ensure their survival in an emergency situation.” For the official statement, please click here.

For press release, please click here.

Formula feeding in an emergency is extremely difficult and dangerous. Even when properly prepared, infant formula actively and passively harms the immune system of young babies, placing them at risk of life-threatening diarrhea and respiratory illness. The Emergency Nutrition Network provides information on how formula can cause deaths due to diarrhea in an emergency at: http://www.ennonline.net/resources/101.

The Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC), International Lactation Consultant Association/United States Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA/USLCA), and La Leche League International (LLLI) strongly affirm the importance of breastfeeding in emergency situations, and call on relief workers and health care providers serving victims of disasters to protect, promote, and support mothers to breastfeed their babies. During an emergency, breastfeeding mothers provide their infants with safe food and water and disease protection that maximize their chances of survival.

For press release, please click here.

For full story, please click here

WABA joins UNICEF, WHO and WFP in call for support for appropriate infant and young child feeding practices in Haiti in the current emergency, and caution about unnecessary and potentially harmful donations and use of breast-milk substitute.

--To read the full Joint Statement, please click here .

For information on breastfeeding in Emergency, please visit WBW 2009 : Breastfeeding, A Vital Emergency Response.

WABA IAC Co-chair, Elisabet Helsing questions Norwegian researcher’s postulation that it’s the environment in utero that decides on the success or failure of breastfeeding.

To read the full article, please click here.

A number of newspaper articles have today reported on a Norwegian study which has found an association between higher levels of male hormones in pregnancy and the ability to breastfeed after birth. The authors are reported to have extrapolated from their findings that mothers’ ability to breastfeed is entirely down to these hormone levels. They are also reported to have claimed that exposure to high levels of testosterone before birth account for the differences in health outcomes between breast and bottle fed babies. The findings of this small study are of interest and may warrant further investigation. However, the claims made in relation to these findings do not account for the large differences in breastfeeding rates between countries, with some having 99% of mothers successfully breastfeeding. They are also contradicted by the large body of evidence which shows that levels of successful breastfeeding can be increased by a range of improved support interventions.

The claims made relating to the health outcomes of breastfeeding do not account for the dose response found in many studies, which show that babies breastfed exclusively or for longer periods have the best overall outcomes.

The study does not account for or tally with the known mechanisms for how breastmilk protects against illness. For example, breastmilk contains a range of anti-infective properties including immunoglobulins, white cells, anti-inflammatory components, enzymes and non-antibody factors such as lactoferrin and the bifidus factor.

For full article please click here.
For abstract of the said research please click here