Hello everyone  

Hard to believe we are so far into April already. I hope your year is going well. 

As touched on in last month’s news, ABA has been busy preparing a response for the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s consultation on the restriction of marketing of infant formula in Australia. ABA produced a briefing paper at the end of March that was shared with partner organisations, ABA volunteers and ABA members on our campaign webpage. We were delighted to have 40 people register and attend a webinar hosted by ABA on 1 April that walked attendees through the briefing paper and included an opportunity for questions. You can find out all about this on our campaign webpage here. The online survey closes this Friday 17 April.  

In other important news, the Department (DOHDA) has developed an online survey specifically for health professionals that asks participants about their experiences with infant formula and toddler milk advertisements and representatives. This survey is live now until 30 April. You can access it here.

Having as many health professionals as possible responding to this survey will be critical to ensuring that future Australian legislation protects the infant feeding choices of parents and families from commercial influence.  

In this month’s Professional Express we offer our ABA professional members TWO ‘Focus on Breastfeeding’ articles. In the first article Sabine Pangerl and colleagues present the first phase of their research that examines breastfeeding curriculum in Australian midwifery courses. The second article is a piece from The Conversation that describes the current Department consultation about restriction of marketing of infant formula in light of current research about online marketing of toddler milks. This really clarifies the issues around marketing of toddler milks. Both are great reads! 

Please note that the program for National Mothering Week (4 to 10 May) is developing. ABA’s free webinar is on Tuesday, 5 May at 7:30 pm and will take the theme of See mums, hear mums, support mums to acknowledge all that mums do from pregnancy, to birth and beyond. You can register for the webinar and find out more about NMW2026 here, including free Virtual Village events and some great lived-experience stories from ABA mums.  

 

Hope you have a great April and talk soon.  

Jen Hocking  

Lactation and Breastfeeding Information Expert Adviser