Abstract
It is hard to believe that it has been only 2 years since I stepped into the role of president of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM). October 2019 was our first annual international meeting outside of North America. We had gathered in Lancashire, England, sharing global perspectives on topics ranging from safe infant sleep to LGBTQI lactation support. As we said our farewells, I had no idea that my 2 years as ABM president would be played out among flickering Zoom squares and global lockdowns.
ABM stepped up early in the COVID-19 pandemic, issuing a statement on March 10, 20201 in which we advocated for keeping mothers and infants together and providing expressed milk for the child if the mother was too ill to feed at breast. The statement was translated into Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Turkish, and it has been downloaded >150,000 times. We hosted a webinar regarding management of mother–infant dyads during COVID in April 2020, and ABM members joined forces to conduct original research on infant feeding practices during the pandemic. 2 In Breastfeeding Medicine, the President's Corner addressed the risks of mother–infant separation 3 and advocated for including pregnant and lactating people in clinical trials of COVID therapeutics. 4 When the first mRNA vaccines were approved, we published guidance on vaccines in lactation. 5
Amid the pandemic, our regional and international meetings pivoted from in-person to virtual. In November of 2020, 421 attendees representing 33 countries gathered for our first-ever virtual conference. The Australia/New Zealand conference moved from Melbourne in May 2020 to an all-virtual event in February 2021. The 8th ABM European Regional Meeting, planned for May 2021 in Croatia, has been rescheduled for 2023. And as the Delta variant continued to make its way through the United States, we have shifted our November 2021 International Meeting to an all-virtual platform.
As much as I have missed connecting in real life with our global community, I have welcomed the ways that we have sustained virtual connections. Late nights in the hotel bar have morphed into extended Zoom sessions that spanned multiple oceans. We have held coffee breaks that brought together members on five continents, comparing notes on the nuances of virtual breastfeeding medicine. And I have been incredibly proud of our board of directors, a dedicated team that has adapted to virtual world and made key strategic decisions to build a more robust organization.
To grow our membership, we moved from an annual membership that renews January 1 to a rolling membership, so that individuals joining any time can enjoy 12 months of membership before receiving a renewal notice. We have also launched an affiliate membership for health care professionals and PhDs interested in Breastfeeding Medicine. Affiliate members receive access to our journal, Breastfeeding Medicine, as well as discounted registration for our international meetings. With these innovations in place, for the first time in our history, we have grown to >1,000 members.
To understand opportunities for growth, we conducted a survey among 177 current and potential members. Online education was identified as a top priority. To address that need, we will be rolling out continuing medical education (CME) credit for ABM protocols starting early in 2022. Protocol CME will be free for members and available for purchase for nonmembers.
One of my key goals as president was to find ways for ABM to cultivate leaders in breastfeeding medicine. To that end, we partnered with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to launch the ABM Leadership Academy. In the Academy's first year, 20 participants engaged in a series of workshops and developed leadership projects, mentored by senior members of ABM. The program included a 2-day opening workshop, a day-long diversity workshop, and a series of seven webinars addressing concepts such as Leading with Purpose and Vision, Conflict Management, and Strategic Thinking. Program graduates will share their projects at our International Meeting in November, and the second cohort will begin in early 2022.
More broadly, we have reviewed our governance structure to apply best practices that engage more of our members in ABM activities and programs. Based on studies of highly effective organizations, we are moving toward a staged approach for engaging volunteers, ranging from micro-volunteering to service on standing committees or the board. We also explored the optimal size for workgroups. According to research from the Harvard Business Review, the optimal group size for decision-making is seven people—for each additional person, decision-making effectiveness falls by 10%. 6 Our goal is to create more dynamic and agile structures for engaging members at the center of their skill sets.
We have also applied proven best practices to nominations for the board. Similar to a sports team, a successful board needs members with complementary skills and experience. Toward that end, our new nominations process considers the competencies and range of experience, including diversity of geography and medical specialty, needed to form a complete board. Board members are surveyed to identify gaps that need to be filled for the coming term. Potential board members complete an application and are interviewed by the nominations committee, which uses a standard rubric to determine which individuals best fill identified gaps. Because the strategic needs of the organization are ever-changing, an individual who is not selected in 1 year might be a top choice in another year, when their specific competencies and expertise are in demand.
These changes in our governance structure will provide the infrastructure to implement our new strategic plan. Our board is working on finalizing our mission and vision to clarify ABM's role among the multiple organizations that enable families to breastfeed. Our updated mission and vision will be our guideposts as we move forward, focusing our efforts on our unique role as experts in clinical care of the lactating dyad.
As I pass the torch, I want to thank the members of ABM, our committee members, the board of directors, the executive committee—Tim Tobolic, Ann Kellams, Sarah Reece-Stremtan, and Eyla Boies—and our management team at Association Management Center. During my 2 years as president, Dave Bergeson and Joe Lindahl have worked tirelessly to cultivate the best of our organization. They have been terrific mentors, colleagues, and collaborators, and I am deeply grateful for their commitment, their humility, and their friendship. I look forward to supporting Ann Kellams in her presidency.