Skip Navigation

U S Department of Health and Human Services www.hhs.govOffice of Public Health and Science
The Office on Women's Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services WomensHealth.gov - The Federal Source for Women's Health Information
1-800-994-9662. TDD: 1-888-220-5446

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Office on Women's Health

Breastfeeding

The Office on Women's Health (OWH) continues to partner with other agencies and organizations to focus attention on the importance of breastfeeding. Below are some of the breastfeeding promotion initiatives and activities the Office on Women's Health is involved in.

The OWH contact person for breastfeeding activities is Ann Abercrombie


HHS Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding

A subcommittee of the Federal Interagency Working Group on Women's Health and the Environment developed the HHS Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding, (PDF file, 239 Kb) released in October, 2000 by the Surgeon General, representing the first comprehensive framework on breastfeeding for the Nation. The Blueprint focuses attention on the importance of breastfeeding and recommends action steps for the health care system, families, the community, researchers and the workplace to promote breastfeeding. The framework also identifies racial and ethnic disparities that exist in breastfeeding, and reveals extremely low rates that exist in African American women. The plan was developed by several organizations in the medical, business, women's health, advocacy, and academic communities and promotes a plan for breastfeeding based on education, training, awareness, support, and research. Specifically, the plan lays out a framework based on the recommendation that infants be exclusively breastfed for the first 4-6 months of a baby's life, preferably 6 months.

Top


National Women's Health Information Center Breastfeeding Helpline

The OWH partnered with La Leche League International to train the Information Specialists of the National Women's Health Information Center (NWHIC) to support the Office's new Breastfeeding Helpline. Information Specialists can help callers with common breastfeeding issues such as nursing positions, questions about pumping and storage, and provide the support moms and dads need to make breastfeeding a success. The Helpline also provides tips for working moms who would like to continue breastfeeding, and offer suggestions for financial support. The Helpline, which operates in both English and Spanish, is open to nursing mothers as well as their partners, families, prospective parents, health professionals and institutions seeking to better educate new mothers about the benefits of breastfeeding. With the launch of the new Breastfeeding Helpline, NWHIC also launched the new web page Breastfeeding - Best for Baby. Best for Mom. The new section was designed to provide practical, helpful breastfeeding information and to help improve breastfeeding rates in all women. Online information is available in English, Spanish and Chinese and includes questions and answers about breastfeeding, coping with breastfeeding challenges and more.

Top


Partnerships

After announcing the HHS Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding, the OWH received a tremendous response from consumers, organizations, and public health professionals concerned about the disparities in breastfeeding rates among white and African American mothers. To address this issue, the Office on Women's Health has partnered with the African-American Breastfeeding Alliance, Inc. (AABA), a community-based non-profit organization whose purpose is to educate the African American community about the benefits of breastfeeding through education, counseling, training, and advocacy. This community partnership with AABA began in December of 2000 and the effort is in its strategic planning phase. For more information about the African American Breastfeeding partnership, e-mail aaba@att.net.

Current as of April 2006

Top

Skip navigation

This site is owned and maintained by the Office on Women's Health
in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Icon for portable document format (Acrobat) files You may need to download a free PDF reader to view files marked with this icon.


Home | Site index | Contact us

Health Topics | Tools | Organizations | Publications | Statistics | News | Calendar | Campaigns | Funding Opportunities
For the Media | For Health Professionals | For Spanish Speakers (Recursos en Español)

About Us | Disclaimer | Freedom of Information Act Requests | Accessibility | Privacy

U S A dot Gov: The U.S. Government's Official Web Portal