Abstract
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This is the first statement that all who visit the website of the Academy will find on the entry page. The Founders of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, mostly living and working in the United States, recognized from the very beginning that breastfeeding medicine needs a global platform and accordingly chose this form of organization.
Newborns, babies, children, and their parents all over the world have the same basic needs for body contact and warmth, bonding and love, time for each other, and breastfeeding, the natural nutrition which also can satisfy many of these other needs. All over the world families turn to their physicians with questions and problems, especially around breastfeeding and nutrition in these first days, weeks, months, and years, out of the desire to do it right, to give their babies and children the best care they are able to provide. And all over the world physicians struggle to answer these questions, because they are not trained in breastfeeding medicine, and they often react from their own experiences or with the information they acquired through the formula industry at conference booths and free offered seminars. Neither type of answer is based on scientific evidence of physiology, pathology, and therapy, and as guidance for these parents this often has detrimental consequences for the initiation and continuation of breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding is identified as an important preventive factor to guarantee the survival and health of a child worldwide 1 and is at the same time a very influential factor in the health and well-being of the mother. Its influence is recognizable for both mother and child far beyond the breastfeeding period, with positive effects on the metabolism, the immune system, and the psychomotor development of the child and on many health aspects of the mother. Both in infant and mother, we see a clear increase in morbidity and sometimes even in mortality, when breastfeeding is not established or breastfeeding takes place only for a short time. 2 From multiple surveys, it is evident that far too many women breastfeed shorter than they would have wished for themselves and/or their children.
One of the main causes of a shortened breastfeeding period is not finding help with regular breastfeeding problems. However, breastfeeding still is a neglected area in the education of physicians. Too often, it is regarded as a “lifestyle choice,” as the AAP statement 2012 says, with so many seemingly equal alternatives, that it is not worth to invest in breastfeeding counseling. In many of the basic core curriculums of medical education, there is no or hardly any information on breastfeeding, leaving it to the choice of the individual physician to gather knowledge in this field.
Our founders recognized right from the beginning that it indeed needs the energy, knowledge, and experience of physicians from many societies and cultures to address these problems and reach out to their colleagues to educate and stimulate a scientific discussion on breastfeeding medicine. Recent discussions in the field of breastfeeding medicine around short frenula and around mastitis have shown that we need the view and experience of many knowledgeable persons in a diversity of specialisms and the scientific data from many populations to gather more information, to find evidence-based solutions for many breastfeeding problems, and to get a more complete picture of breastfeeding medicine.
We cannot forget that breastfeeding medicine is a young specialism. Only in recent decades has the research and science of breastfeeding medicine rapidly expanded, and even now there are many open questions, with many colleagues struggling to finance their research in this area. There is so much work to be done and so much to explore. Being part of the global community can be of advantage to bring this research forward and to spread the knowledge among all physicians.
During the past decades, this vision of our founders has come to fruition. The Academy now has members in over 40 countries, and the board of directors consists of members living in Israel, Egypt, Germany, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It is with deep gratitude to the Academy and its founders that I have the honor and privilege of being the first nonnative English-speaking president of the Academy. I especially owe great gratitude to the inspiring world citizens Dr. Miriam Labbok and Dr. Audrey Naylor who both worked lifelong as tireless breastfeeding advocates around the globe. They inspired and encouraged me to take the vision of the founders and make it my own vision.
There will be challenges of communication, such as time zones and language. Some colleagues are fluent in English and others, whose first language is not necessarily English, will sometimes need clarification and extra questions. But in my experience, these challenges are also advantages, allowing us to have a broader scope of experience. As I learned by moving from the Netherlands to Germany, some solutions to problems are better in one country, some solutions are better in the other country, and sometimes solutions are just different, giving one the opportunity to choose between various options. I hope this will inspire many of our members, wherever they live, to share their knowledge, their experience, and their solutions on breastfeeding problems with the worldwide community, so we all can learn from each other.
I also am grateful for my predecessors, Dr. Alison Stuebe, who will leave the board of directors after so many years, and to Dr. Ann Kellams, who will still serve 2 more years as past president and thank them for all the work they have done in the past, challenging, and difficult years for the Academy. Their example of leadership will be my guidance. I am grateful for Dr. Julie Ware, who will be our president-elect in the coming 2 years. Together with our executive director, Carol Pape, and the board of directors, we will work on making the Academy even more international, even more diverse, with even more possibilities to discuss important breastfeeding topics with our colleagues. The initiation of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) will give you all the opportunity to participate in these discussions. It is an excellent way to broaden your horizons and to contribute to these fields of interest.
Please let us know where we can serve you more, what your needs are in your part of the world, what questions you have, and what challenges you face. Use the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine as an organization and a platform to learn and to educate. Reach out to your colleagues from all specialties and ask them to join the Academy to participate in the discussions. This is not always easy, but it is so rewarding to see children breastfeeding, mothers reaching their own breastfeeding goals, families growing together, and societies becoming healthier.