To the Leadership of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists:

We want to thank Dr. Christopher Zahn, Vice President of Practice Activities for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for responding to our letter regarding safe support of breastfeeding in the newborn period and inclusive support of all mother’s informed infant feeding choices.

We thank you for endorsing that Obstetrician-Gynecologists and midwives provide counseling on when a mother should seek help regarding breastfeeding problems. We are encouraged by your support of providers maintaining knowledge and skills on normal breastfeeding physiology and management of breastfeeding complications, including anticipatory pre-hospital discharge feeding guidance for mothers on those matters. We, too, feel that providing mothers the tools to recognize safe and unsafe conditions in their infants during the course of breastfeeding is critical to providing safe and ethical breastfeeding support. Most of all, we are so grateful for ACOG’s recommendation that Obstetrician-Gynecologists and other obstetric care providers support each woman’s informed decision about what form of infant feeding is best for her child, whether it be exclusive breastfeeding, mixed feeding or formula feeding.  We, too, believe that mothers are uniquely qualified to determine what optimal nutrition looks like for her child depending on breast milk supply, anatomy, infant nutritional needs and the complex social, psychological and economic realities of the family unit. We, too, believe that supporting and respecting a mother’s safe infant feeding choices is paramount to fulfilling our core responsibilities as health providers.

Thank you for your continued support of mothers and their infants as well as the health providers that care for them.

Sincerely,

Christie del Castillo-Hegyi, MD and Jody Segrave-Daly, RN, IBCLC, Co-Founders and The Fed is Best Foundation