IBCLC & International Code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes Online Course(s) & Continuing Education
Access the latest clinical skills and research for IBCLC & International Code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes for IBCLC/Lactation Consultants professional training. These IBCLC & International Code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes online courses provide practice-changing skills and valuable perspectives from leading global experts. This IBCLC & International Code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes education has been accredited for a variety of CEUs / CERPs and can be accessed on-demand, at your own pace.
Global Perspectives on the Warm Chain of Support for Breastfeeding
Dr. Amal Omer-Salim is the Executive Director of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA). She is a nutritionist with a Ph.D. from Uppsala University, Sweden. Her areas of expertise are nutrition, breastfeeding, international health, gender, programme planning, research, and advocacy, with a special focus on Africa and Asia.
Global trends in breastfeeding rates only show modest increases between 2000 and 2015. Currently, about 40% of babies below 6 months are exclusively breastfed and several barriers on the structural, setting, and individual levels exist. Continuous support for mothers across the 1000 days from conception has been shown to be effective in increasing the duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding. WABA’s Warm Chain campaign places the mother-baby dyad at the core and strives to link different actors by coordinating efforts at all levels to provide a continuum of care during the first 1000 days. The warm chain needs to be protected, promoted, and supported. Protection includes implementation and monitoring of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes as well as coordination to ensure that all the linkages in the chain are working well. Promotion entails providing information about the roles and responsibilities of each actor along the timeline. Support includes increasing knowledge, skills, and competencies of multi-professional teams in order to provide optimal support for breastfeeding. Achieving a warm chain of support for breastfeeding will help increase breastfeeding rates, thus ensuring improved survival, health, and well being. The short and long-term positive effects impact individuals, societies, and the planet.
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What’s New With the International Code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes: It’s Not Just About Formula!
A Canadian living in France for more than 25 years, Juanita discovered breastfeeding with her three children and has never looked back.
She became a La Leche League Leader in 1997, and served on the boards of LLL France 2004-2008 and LLL Europe 2011-2018. She has been the regional representative of LLL Europe to WABA since 2007. Juanita became a lactation consultant in 2003 (IBCLC), recertifying in 2008 and 2013.
Juanita was the coordinator for the Journée Internationale de l’Allaitement (‘JIA’ – International Breastfeeding Conference for health professionals organized by LLL France) in 2003 and 2008. She helped create and implement the Peer Counsellor Programme in France (Programme relais allaitement- Prall).
The WHO Code is one of her passions! She has spoken on the Code at conferences around the world. Member of the Coordination française pour l’allaitement maternel (CoFam) since 2007, she was head of the Task Force on the Code and ethical questions. As a member of IBFAN *and GIFA, she was given the opportunity to participate in international meetings of the Codex Alimentarius and the OECD in Paris, as well as in week-long IBFAN conferences in Montecatini, Italy in 2007, and in Geneva in 2008. She also attended the Committee on the Convention on Rights of the Child in Geneva for IBFAN and helped prepare a country report on France underlining the importance of breastfeeding and the need to apply the Code (2009). She is an active member of IBFAN’s Global Working Group on Contaminants in Breastmilk. In 2018, she represented LLLI at the second NetCode meeting in Geneva.
The International Code on the Marketing of breast milk substitutes is the very cornerstone of breastfeeding protection, promotion and support, and an integral part of infant and young feeding policies around the world; yet it is often misunderstood or considered to be an out of date document with little relevance to breastfeeding issues today. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Code is updated regularly with additional resolutions voted at World Health Assemblies every two years, and covers far more than the marketing of breast milk substitutes in the first six months of life, but promotes optimal nutrition practices up to 36 months, and addresses conflict of interest with infant food companies. Indeed, the rapidly growing global market of breast milk substitutes, estimated at more than $70 billion in 2019, continues to undermine breastfeeding through its evermore aggressive and omnipresent marketing techniques, focused on parents, health professionals and health systems. The stakes are high – understanding and implementing the Code is an essential step towards ensuring optimal nutrition for infants and young children, whether breastfed or formula-fed.
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Your Responsibility to the WHO Code: Evaluating Real-World Scenarios for Compliance
Christine Staricka is a Registered, International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant and trained childbirth educator. As the host of The Lactation Training Lab Podcast, her current role focuses on training and coaching current and aspiring lactation care providers. Christine created and developed The First 100 Hours© concept, an early lactation framework designed to support lactation care providers with the knowledge and mindset they need to help families optimize early lactation. Christine worked as a hospital-based IBCLC for 10 years and has over 20 years experience providing clinical lactation care and support. She provides clinical lactation care to families at Baby Café Bakersfield and serves as its Director. Christine recently completed 6 years of service on the Board of the United States Lactation Consultant Association (USLCA.) She holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Phoenix. She has been married for 27 years, lives in California, and is the proud mother of 3 amazing daughters.
Topic: Tongue-Tied and Troubled: A Breastfeeding Journey at Risk - [View Abstract]
Topic: Your Responsibility to the WHO Code: Evaluating Real-World Scenarios for Compliance - [View Abstract]
The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (WHO Code) exists to protect health during a vulnerable period of life. In the course of practicing health care in the service of families with babies and young children, health care workers of all disciplines will encounter situations which should be guided by the WHO Code. It is in the interest of families and health for all health workers to be aware of the WHO Code and what it requires, as well as to be able to evaluate a situation where a commercial entity is interacting with the public regarding infant and young child feeding. Using a rubric of WHO Code guidance, the participant will practice evaluating real-world case studies and determining whether or not they are in compliance with the WHO Code.
