Leading the Charge,Year Three

This is the report of the Third Annual Summit on Breastfeeding, “First Food: The Essential Role of Breastfeeding.” The First Summit on Breastfeeding was convened in Washington in 2009 to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the original Surgeon General's call to action in 1984 by C. Everett Koop, M.D., Sc.D. The underlying plan in 2009 was to establish new strategies to promote breastfeeding in diverse and large venues. The status of breastfeeding in the United States was reviewed, and although progress had been made in initiation, employment was viewed as a huge barrier. Disparities in breastfeeding continued to grow. Children who would most benefit from breastfeeding were not given this essential opportunity.

In 2010, the Second Summit reviewed the progress accomplished: More women were initiating breastfeeding and nearly achieving the goals set by Healthy People 2010 of 75% of women breastfeeding in the hospital. ¹ Unfortunately, duration had been abysmal, and the disparity in numbers among minority populations was of greater concern. The new focus was to harness the third-party payers and the healthcare brain trusts to find a solution. The stimulus was the report by Melissa Bartick, M.D., M.Sc., and Arnold Reinhold, M.B.A., “The Burden of Suboptimal Breastfeeding in the United States: A Pediatric Cost Analysis,” which identified a savings of 13 billion dollars for the healthcare system if 90% of women were breastfeeding for the first 6 months. ² Charles Phelps, Ph.D., led the way and has spent the past year working on a scheme that would harness the skills of the corporate world and develop a “business plan” that would push breastfeeding ahead in all venues, including the need to reverse the poor record of minority mothers and their infants.

In addition to the updates on the Federal, state, and local levels, the Third Summit gathered experts in both healthcare economics and health promotion together. The Surgeon General's new Call to Action, ³ the new White House Council on Women and Girls Report, ⁴ and the continuing work of the Office on Women's Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the issues pertaining to progress in breastfeeding rates across the country were discussed. The Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC) also continued to be a big player in the field. We benefited from WIC presentations, as well as presentations from a key Senator, Mayors, and Health Commissioners. The most important member of the discussion was the audience, who had been invited as participants because of their expertise, experience, and commitment to moving the numbers.

The goal was to move the numbers at the Federal, state, and local levels by harnessing the commitment and action in the public sector and the private sector. Consensus on viable, effective, cost-saving plans to advance the initiation and duration of breastfeeding among all mothers and infants was approached, and commitment was achieved.

No one person or organization can do this alone, but we surely can and will do this together. This remains our charge, our challenge, and our responsibility.…