Doctors Declaration for Breast Feeding [letter]

Concerned about the decline in the practice of breastfeeding and the serious attendant consequences for infant health a group of pediatricians and physicians meeting in Thailand during October 1986 drew up a 20-point declaration to guide the conduct and practice of any medical practitioner who wants to promote and protect breastfeeding. The 20 points are outlined. These include: ensuring that mothers in their care are informed about the unique qualities of human milk and the risks to their infants health of using any substitute; encourage and enable mothers to hold and suckle their infants immediately after birth within at most 2 hours of delivery; ensure that mothers and babies stay together in in the postpartum ward from the time of delivery; enable and encourage mothers to feed their babies on demand; ensure that mothers receive emotional support and skilled assistance to establish lactation; ensure that mothers receive appropriate information about the physiology of lactation; prohibit newborn babies to receive any prelacteal feeds of formula animal milk glucose water water honey or of any food substance other than human milk; discourage the use of complementary or supplementary feeds for infants under age 4 months and when possible discourage them for infants under age 6 months; and prohibit the use of feeding bottles or teats in any hospital ward.