Breastfeeding is essential - are you on board?

World Breastfeeding Week 2009 is staged from 28 September to 4 October under the banner "Breastfeeding is essential! Are you on board?" The National Breastfeeding Committee is definitely on board. For 15 years it has been committed to promoting breastfeeding in Germany. In the future, too, parents and experts will be provided with in-depth information on breastfeeding as a normal form of food for infants and its importance for the health of mother and child.

Breastfed infants are less at risk from acute and chronic diseases than non-breastfed infants. That’s why breastfeeding also makes an important contribution to primary prevention and health promotion. Recent studies show that in Germany fewer than 50 percent of infants are exclusively breastfed at the age of two months. The Breastfeeding Commission, therefore, believes that there is an urgent need for the long-term increase in breastfeeding rates. To this end, obstacles to breastfeeding must be identified and dismantled.

The opportunities for extensive, multi-disciplinary cooperation in promoting breastfeeding are the subject of a workshop staged by the National Breastfeeding Committee on 28 September 2009 to mark the beginning of World Breastfeeding Week. An invitation to this workshop is extended to representatives of the sciences, practice and political circles by the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. More detailed information is available in the section “Events” (in German) on http://www.bfr.bund.de