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National Breastfeeding Advisory Committee
www.moh.govt.nz/nbac
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13 August 2008: The Ministry of Health is calling for nominations for the National Breastfeeding Advisory Committee.
The Committee will follow on from the work of the National Breastfeeding Advisory Committee.

Download: The nomination form (Word, 71 KB), the terms of reference (Word, 90 KB) and the covering letter (PDF, 18 KB)

18 March 2008: National Strategic Plan of Action for Breastfeeding – invitation to comment Submissions closed on the 2 May 2008

The Ministry of Health has set up a new committee to develop, lead and co-ordinate a national breastfeeding plan aimed at improving New Zealand's breastfeeding rates.

The establishment of the National Breastfeeding Advisory Committee was identified as a goal in the Ministry's 2002 document Breastfeeding: A Guide to Action. It follows on from the recommendation of the Innocenti Declaration, a global initiative to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.

The committee will be responsible for leading and co-ordinating the national breastfeeding plan, which will identify barriers to breastfeeding and look at opportunities for encouraging more women to breastfeed their babies. The plan will also help address inequalities by creating supportive environments to increase breastfeeding rates and maintain breastfeeding duration.

New Zealand has relatively high breastfeeding rates at birth which compare favourably with other OECD countries, but they decline significantly with time. At five to six weeks over 68 percent of infants are fully breast fed. At three months that figure drops to about 55 percent while just 24 percent are breast fed from four to six months, according to Plunket.

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