Abstract
Connections: They are key not only to learning and to sharing knowledge but also to encourage and to inspire. Members of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) received a message from the Board of Directors on June 25 regarding the importance of empowering relationships with colleagues around the world through our organization. How these connections support physicians and other health care workers in their daily tasks of supporting mothers, children, and families was recently showcased in two Breastfeeding Medicine conferences that were organized in May 2025.
The first conference took place in an unexpected area of the world, Voevodyno, in the southwestern corner of Ukraine, organized by our ABM member, Dr. Lina Barska, and her team from the Ukraine Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. Here, in this beautiful and peaceful corner of a country under the throes of war, 152 physicians met in person and an additional 153 participants attended online. Participants came from all parts of Ukraine, even from Kharkiv and Odessa, traveling with their families sometimes more than 19 hours by train to gather and also find some necessary rest and respite.
The program had a broad diversity of topics. The impact of war on breastfeeding and infant nutrition was addressed, as it unfortunately has direct consequences in the present situation. Other covered topics included metabolic diseases of the baby and their consequences for breastfeeding and HIV and breastfeeding. Additional workshops were offered on communication training with mothers and families and on guiding mothers on attachment.
The second conference was organized by the Board of Directors with President Dr. Monica Pina and the organizing Committee of the European Association of Breastfeeding Medicine, most of them also members of ABM, in Tallinn, Estonia, the hometown of the Treasurer of the organization, Reet Raukas. Again, more than 150 participants, this time from many European countries, Israel, and from all over the world, attended this meeting at the Proto Invention Factory, in a meeting room next to a big hall, where science is discovered by the whole family. It was an unusual but wonderful venue for a breastfeeding conference, showing how (breastfeeding) organizations with small budgets and few sponsors can be creative in gathering without high venue costs.
The meeting kicked off with a wonderful workshop on the World Health Organization’s Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, with renowned speakers: Dr. Rafael Perez Escamilla, Dr. Nigel Rollins, and our very “own” ABM Board member Dr. Rima Strassman Toland. Innovative and interactive ideas were exchanged in order to help us in our efforts to educate colleagues and health care workers about the Code, as we plan conferences, grow our organizations, and find ways to close the door to commercial companies who violate the code.
The main conference was filled with the usual ingredients of a professional conference: high-quality speakers on a broad range of topics, interesting discussions between participants, sharing their own experiences, posters, presenting new research in the field, and, at the end of the first day, a wonderful banquet with smashing music and some fabulous dancing.
What was tangible during both conferences, however, was not only the excitement about the high-level lectures but also the joy with meeting colleagues, discussing breastfeeding problems, and sharing experiences in the field of breastfeeding medicine, with its challenges, both structural and personal, and also with the satisfaction that professional support in this field gives. Many who work in this field feel often isolated, not taken seriously by their peers, facing many obstacles in the form of lack of knowledge in the direct environment and policy barriers, which seem not to have diminished in the past years.
These circumstances can cause us to doubt what we are doing, daunted as we are with the enormous tasks, the high needs of our patients and the few resources some of us have to adequately treat and support these patients. Hearing from colleagues in many different situations, with different nationalities and different backgrounds nevertheless facing the same difficulties, exchanging challenges and solutions, may give new strength and encourage and empower us to go the extra mile in our daily work.
We can achieve knowledge by reading books and journals or by viewing prerecorded webinars and listening to podcasts. They are very useful instruments to broaden our horizons, to gain more insight into diseases and problems, and to learn new treatments and approaches. However, what has the most impact on us as humans is direct contact. We do not function on an intellectual, strictly scientific level; we also need emotional input, human exchange and encouragement, correction when needed, and empowerment when available. These are the “gamechangers” which really influence our change and our growth to become more capable workers in the field.
This is the main reason that we still attend not only in-person conferences, if possible but also online livestream events, where exchange and interaction are possible. Here progress is born, by throwing in new frameworks and wild ideas; here discussion about theory and practice of Breastfeeding Medicine in a respectful way will bring us further as a growing and evolving new specialty. And although our 2025 ABM Conference is a virtual conference, there will be many, many opportunities for this personal interaction, in live sessions, in breakout groups, and in watch parties. Did you already register for the 2025 Annual ABM conference? We can’t wait to “see you”!