This morning I received the following statement. The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Health (APPPAH) has been a leader in advancing the cause of childbearing women and their babies. It was co-founded by Dr. Thomas Verny, who wrote The Secret Life of the Unborn Child and Dr. David Chamberlain, author of Windows to the Womb. The members of APPPAH have been advocates for healthy and natural pre- and perinatal practices including breastfeeding for decades. Read on: this statement is worth it!
Press Release:
The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH)
RE: Statement on Breastfeeding
The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) is dedicated to protecting infant and young child health through scientific research and education. It is from this standing that APPPAH releases the following Statement on Breastfeeding.
The benefits of breastfeeding are widely acknowledged by the World Health Assembly; World Health Organization (WHO); Centers for Disease Control (CDC); United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC); U.S. Surgeon General; USDA’s Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program; American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG); American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP); American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP); American Public Health Association (APHA), American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM); and the American Dietetic Association (ADA), as well as other well-informed and prestigious independent, educational and government organizations.
Scientific evidence shows that human milk is the most appropriate food for almost all human infants and that maintaining breastfeeding as the norm is seen as an important preventative health measure.
Increasing aggressive advertising of human milk substitutes, including widespread hospital distribution of discharge packs that advertise substitutes for human milk, inappropriate advertisements, and direct marketing to parents and health practitioners violate the World Health Organization (WHO) International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. These practices discourage breastfeeding, and formula marketing has a disproportionately negative impact on mothers already at high risk for early weaning.
In turn, the WHO/United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Global Strategy on Infant and Young Child Feeding, approved by the World Health Assembly and UNICEF Executive Board, is a call for urgent action, including widespread implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative and legislation of the International Code.
Therefore, be it resolved that APPPAH does not support the wording in the current U.N. Resolution which creates unnecessary hurdles and barriers for mothers seeking to provide safe and adequate nutrition to their children via breastfeeding. Instead, we support the original Resolution introduced 5/26/2018 titled “Infant and Young Child Feeding” which reaffirms that “breastfeeding is critical for child survival, nutrition and development, and maternal health” and that “appropriate, evidence-based and timely support of infant and young child feeding in emergencies saves lives, protects child nutrition, health and development, and benefits mothers and families.”
Finally, APPPAH maintains that women, infants, and children should not be used as negotiating factors in government arguments or trade debates which are anti-science, pro-industry, and anti-public health. Further, we call on governments and the media to portray breastfeeding as normal, desirable, and achievable for women of all cultures and socioeconomic levels.