184089 Bringing Innocenti home: Creating innovative partnerships and applying new strategies to achieve Innocenti objectives in North Carolina hospitals

Monday, October 27, 2008: 8:30 AM

Emily C. Taylor, MPH, CD(DONA), LCCE , Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute, Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
The Innocenti Declaration on the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding was produced and adopted by WHO/UNICEF policymakers to improve infant and young child health (1990). The declaration advocates for societal changes that empower mothers to make informed choices about infant feeding. The authors believed that this could occur through social mobilization led by societal leaders from multiple venues. Member nations' efforts would target four primary goals: 1) Appoint a national breastfeeding coordinator and develop a multisectoral national breastfeeding committee; 2) Adopt and enforce the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative in maternity service facilities; 3) Enforce the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes; and 4) Develop maternity protection legislation.

Despite signing this declaration, the United States has achieved very little organized mobilization around the four objectives. The need for new and innovative strategies led to the formation of an academic – coalition partnership between the Center for Infant and Young Child Feeding and Care at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health and the North Carolina State Breastfeeding Coalition. This partnership is actualizing Innocenti's objectives to achieve optimal infant and young child health. Collaborative efforts aim to achieve two of the four Innocenti objectives in North Carolina: enforcement of the Code and adoption of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. This presentation details research regarding Code enforcement and Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative in North Carolina. Further, it highlights the innovative strategies used to achieve these goals in North Carolina hospitals (with emphasis on strategies that may be effectively replicated elsewhere).

Learning Objectives:
Recognize the Innocenti Declaration as an indispensable guide to improving infant and young child health in domestic and international settings. Articulate the main principles of Innocenti in order to establish its importance, logic, and utility. Review evidence regarding the risks of direct-to-consumer infant formula advertising and the benefits of Baby Friendly Hospitals. Describe the current social atmosphere of breastfeeding in the United States, with special focus on North Carolina using new data from the CIYCFC and the CDC. Describe the process of forming an innovative academic-coalition partnership. Detail effective strategies for actualizing Innocenti in North Carolina, with emphasis on optimal replication in other settings.

Keywords: Breast Feeding, Community Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a Master of Public Health, having recently completed my studies at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. I am also the liaison from the Center for Infant and Young Child Feeding and Care to the North Carolina State Breastfeeding Coalition. I work on Code enforcement and adoption of Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative as part of my work as the Outreach and Programs Associate at the CIYCFC.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.