The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine Clinical Protocols are the work of the ABM Protocol Committee and expert contributors. The process is long and labor-intensive, and all volunteer. The primary research produces an annotated bibliography with levels of evidence as per the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which inform our recommendations. These annotated bibliographies are available as a member benefit on the Members Only Web Page. The initial draft of the protocol is sent to expert reviewers in both the United States and abroad and the Protocol Committee for comment, which are then incorporated into the draft. It is finally sent to the ABM Board of Directors for their comments. At this stage, depending on how many edits have occurred from the original draft, the protocol may be sent back to the original expert contributors to make sure they are in agreement with all the comments/additions/deletions that have occurred. Then, and only then, is it sent to the ABM Board for vote and must pass by a minimum two-thirds majority vote (to this point they all have passed unanimously), before it can be submitted in final form for publication in our journal Breastfeeding Medicine, posted on our Web site, and released to all for use. Thus far all our protocols have also passed the rigorous requirements of the National Guidelines Clearinghouse (NGC) (www.guideline.gov/) and are posted on their Web site. The process stops here—for 5 years—at which point all protocols must be reviewed and revised as per any new literature that has been published. So the process then begins again. We know these Clinical Protocols are well used. We track "hits" to each on our Web site, as does NGC on a monthly basis. We can track how many times each protocol is viewed through these two Web sites, and they are also viewed on the journal's Web site, which we can't track. But just with the numbers we collect, we know they are very well used!
The Protocol Committee would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to our global expert reviewers of 2011–2012. Without their invaluable assistance, our protocols would not attain the level of excellence for which they are known. Thank you for your time and expertise!
Australia:
Wendy Brodribb, MBBS
Ellen Mcintyre, PhD
Julie Smith, PhD
Chile:
Verónica Valdés, MD
France:
Marie-Claude Marchand, MD
Georgia (former USSR Republic):
Ketevan Nemsadze, MD
Germany:
Skadi Springer, MD
Italy:
Marcia Bettinelli, MD
Japan:
Toshihiko Nishida, MD
Katsuo Terui, MD
United States:
Craig Bonanni, MD
Gerald Calnen, MD
