Hi everyone  

We (and also you no doubt!) are at the end of another World Breastfeeding Week and as I write this, I know that there are many ABA local groups as well as health services and gaggles of health professionals across Australia who made special efforts to have meetings together to celebrate and support each other and the families they care for.  

And there are also many ABA breastfeeding counsellors and educators and other volunteers who have been making presentations and speaking at WBW events for health professionals in their communities about what ABA does. It is great for our volunteers to have the opportunity to keep everyone up to date with what ABA does and offers so that this information can be shared with the mums and families you work with.  

I also wanted to give a shout-out to ABA's long-running, nourished-by-volunteers peer-reviewed journal, Breastfeeding Review. Back in February's Monthly news I acknowledged the work of our previous editor Jenni James. Jenni is certainly a hard act to follow, but we are absolutely delighted to have two new editors from our amazing ABA ranks to take up the reins as co-editors.   

They have hit the ground running, are getting our next edition ready and are keen to encourage researchers and clinicians alike to submit to our high-quality breastfeeding journal in the near future. The journal is published three times a year and you can read all the requirements about submitting a paper to us on the ABA professional website here. We would love to hear from you anytime if you have questions or a paper you would like us to consider.  

Finally, I wanted to share an outcome from our WBW free webinar that was held last Tuesday evening. As part of the presentation the audience was asked what they felt would strengthen breastfeeding support in Australia. Below is an adapted word cloud – more or less responses reflected in the size of the letters. I don't want to comment on this much except to say that this week it's great to know that so many people are thinking hard about the future of breastfeeding in Australia. Maybe this could be a discussion starter to share with your colleagues.  

I hope you had a great World Breastfeeding Week and see you soon. 

Jen Hocking   Lactation and Breastfeeding Information Expert Adviser