Overview "The Institute"

National Breastfeeding Committee

The National Breastfeeding Committee was founded in 1994 in the Robert Koch Institute. The setting up of this Committee complied with a resolution of the 45th World Health Assembly of WHO.

From 1999 onwards it had been attached to the former Federal Institute for Consumer Health Protection and Veterinary Medicine until it moved on 1 November 2002 to the new Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) in Berlin.

The members of the National Breastfeeding Committee work in an honorary capacity. They are paediatricians, gynaecologists, nutritionists, midwives, paediatric nurses, breastfeeding counsellors and representatives of breastfeeding associations. They are nominated for a term of three years by the President of BfR and this term can be extended. The Committee members select a spokesperson.

Tasks

The mission of the National Breastfeeding Committee is to:

• promote breastfeeding in the Federal Republic of Germany;
• advise the federal government;
• formulate guidelines and recommendations;
• support initiatives to dismantling obstacles to breastfeeding;
• adopt a stance on questions relating to constraints on advertising practice for breast milk substitutes.

Information material

The National Breastfeeding Committee makes leaflets available free of charge for maternity logbooks and children’s medical examination logbooks. The corresponding link is located in the right navigation column under "Further information".