Video 1. Speaking out: Maureen Minchin helps pioneer the professionalisation of breastfeeding support internationally
In Video 1, above, of this four part series, Maureen Minchin discusses her role in the development of the ground-breaking initiatives which have professionalised breastfeeding and lactation support world-wide.
About Maureen Minchin
Pioneering breastfeeding advocate Maureen Minchin BHons MA (Melb) TSTC is an Australian medical historian, author, and founding lactation consultant, now in her 80s.
From 1984-1986 Maureen played pivotal roles in the creation of IBLCE (the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners), ILCA (the International Lactation Consultant Association), and ALCA (the Australian Lactation Consultant Association), ensuring those organisations’ support for the 1981 WHO International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.
From 1989 Maureen was involved in discussions that led to the creation of APMAIF, the Australian Panel on the Marketing of Infant Formula in Australia. After working with the WHO Nutrition Unit on Infant Feeding: the Physiological Basis, from 1991-2 Maureen pioneered the WHO/UNICEF Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, at home and internationally.
Other videos in this series
Video 2. Speaking out: Maureen Minchin successfully advocates for integration of support for the WHO Code into regulatory framework of professional lactation non-profits. Maureen discusses her role as a key advocate for the integration of WHO Code support into regulatory frameworks - and how she was subsequently subject within professional lactation support networks to false but damaging accusations of WHO Code violation.
Video 3. Speaking out: Maureen Minchin discusses how the Australian Lactation Consultants Association splintered in mid-1990s over false innuendo against her about WHO Code violation. This had a many-years-long impact on the capacity for professional lactation non-profits to advocate with government on behalf of breastfeeding families, including inability to advocate for containment of formula company marketing practices.
Video 4. Speaking out: Maureen Minchin is in discussion with Dr Pamela Douglas, exploring how exclusion of researchers is widespread due to claims of WHO Code violation, without transparency or scientific rationale. The exclusion of researchers and clinican-researchers has increasingly and seriously biased lactation medicine education towards non-evidence-based interventions.
Breastfeeding Matters. CH10 History and Politics of Infant Feeding. Maureen Minchin.pdf
Maureen's books
Maureen is the author of
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Revolutions and rosewater: a history of the Victorian Nursing Council 1923-1973. 1978
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Food for thought: a parent’s guide to food intolerance. 1982 (first ed) 1982 (first ed) 1986, 1992 editions; UK and Japanese editions
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Breastfeeding matters: what we need to know about infant feeding. 1985, 1989, 1998 editions
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Milk matters: infant feeding and immune disorder. 2015