Happy New Year! I hope the year has started off well for you.
It has certainly kicked off with a bang here at ABA.
We are already busy preparing a variety of professional development opportunities for you. These include our Annual Health Professional Seminar Series, a new collection of full day workshops, a night-time webinar series, freshly developed online eLearning modules and our exciting Live COVID-19 Panel with globally recognised expert speakers (details below). Check our website home page for more details of upcoming (13 February) medications workshop with Dr Rodney Whyte.
Live COVID-19 Expert Panel
You may have heard already that, on Wednesday 3 February at 7 pm AEST, 8 pm AEDT, we will be holding a Live Panel via Zoom. This is free for all registrants. The Covid-19 public forum will bring together experts in the field of infant and young child feeding, with the aim to provide updated information to health professionals who care for women, families, and their babies, regarding breastfeeding in the context of COVID-19 and considerations around the vaccination for women who are breastfeeding. All welcome!
Our expert panel guests will be Dr Karleen Gribble, Western Sydney University, Dr Nina Chad, World Health Organization, and Prof Lisa Amir, LaTrobe University and Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne. The event will be chaired by Melbourne-based Obstetrician, Dr Nisha Khot.
The panel discussion will include topics such as Breastfeeding in the context of COVID-19, latest information on the COVID-19 vaccination, behaviour change communication, considerations when weighing up risks/benefits of COVID-19 vaccination for breastfeeding mothers, importance of keeping mothers and babies together. This will all be followed by a live Q and A to finish the evening. Professional Development points will be applied for. Stay tuned.
You can register, free, and find out more here: https://aba.asn.au/covidpanel
ABA Professional Website
It has nearly been a year since we introduced our new website ABA Professional as a place for you to find the resources you need for your work all in one place. We are in the process of looking at how we can make it even easier for you to find what you need by redesigning the menu format. This should happen over the next couple of months.
As well as that we will be automating your membership making it much easier for you to maintain your membership. After your next membership renewal, you will no longer need to log in when it is time to renew, unless your credit card details have changed. You will receive an automated email prior to your membership renewal to provide you with time to update card details when necessary or if you wish to leave us you will have time to cancel your renewal.
Making the most of your member benefits
Our ABA Professional website has many features that are member-only. To ensure access to these, please make sure you are logged in at the top right-hand side of the home page. If you have not logged in before, you will need to renew your password from the log in page.
For example, to access Breastfeeding Review online PDFs you need to be logged in to find your access. Once logged in a button appears ‘Online access to Breastfeeding Review’ on the Breastfeeding Review page which is found via the following path: Information Services>For professionals>Breastfeeding review.
Along with Breastfeeding Review many other benefits are also found in the same menu path Information Services>For professionals eg. Research summaries, feature articles, and the contact form for the Scientific Information Officer.
We hope to see you at one of our Health Professional Seminars in March, it is the final days now for Early Bird Registration (ends 31 January). On top of that if you are a Professional member you will receive an extra discount on registration. So jump in so that you don’t miss out on the excellent line up of speakers and topics.
Just a note that our research summary writers have had a break this month, but the research summaries will be back as usual in the February newsletter.
All the best,
Naomi Hull
Senior Manager Breastfeeding Information and Research
