About The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM)
ABM offers different ways for you to make a difference.
Our Mission, Vision, and Values
Mission
Medical doctors educating and empowering health professionals to support and manage breastfeeding, lactation, and human milk feeding.
Vision
Healthier lives worldwide through excellence in the medical care of breastfeeding and lactation.
Values
- Inclusive: We bring together a global, multidisciplinary community of medical doctors and health professionals to inform practice and improve health.
- Collaborative: We create a collegial and inclusive environment.
- Evidence-Based: We curate, support, and share high quality research and innovative solutions.
- Quality: We strive to ensure professionals are enabled to support and nurture families with safe and effective care.
- Global: We ensure that our resources and protocols are accessible and applicable worldwide.
- Discipline: Breastfeeding medicine is a medical discipline.
For more than 25 years, ABM has been bringing doctors together to provide evidence-based solutions to the challenges facing breastfeeding across the globe. A vast body of research has demonstrated significant nutritional, physiological, and psychological benefits for both mothers and children that last well beyond infancy. But while breastfeeding is the foundation of a lifetime of health and well-being, clinical practice lags behind scientific evidence.
By building on our legacy of research into this field and sharing it with the broader medical community, we can overcome barriers, influence health policies, and change behaviors.
Learn more about the principles by which we operate in our Strategic Plan, Code of Ethics, Core Competencies, and Bylaws.
Watch our short video commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine and featuring interviews with leading physicians and leaders in global health.
Enjoy learning more about us HERE in our video.
We invite you to watch and share! 
History: A Legacy of Scientific Rigor
In 1993, a group of physicians at an International Lactation Consultant Association meeting began discussing the idea of a multidisciplinary physician organization dedicated to the science of breastfeeding medicine. Identifying common concerns and challenges, a core group of 12 physicians formed Physicians Advocating Breastfeeding (PHAB) and scheduled their first conference for the summer of 1994. ABM officially incorporated in 1995.
At the inaugural conference, the founders drafted bylaws, articles of incorporation, a mission statement, short and long-term goals, and general organizational structures. They also renamed the organization the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM).
Now in its third decade of existence, ABM continues to grow while pursuing three principal goals:
- Education of healthcare providers and institutions
- Fostering a global professional community of doctors with diverse specialties committed to the care of women and children
- Advancement of research and practices that shape public policy in support of breastfeeding
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