Public Health Infrastructure
An effective national public health program requires the basic coordination and monitoring of services. Activities to promote and support breastfeeding originate from a wide variety of entities, including federal, state, and local governments; nonprofit organizations; and professional associations. Within the federal government, numerous agencies have developed programs on breastfeeding, and others have programs that affect breastfeeding indirectly. Although the work of each of these agencies is valuable, no formal structure for coordinating federal breastfeeding initiatives exists to reduce overlap or to identify gaps in current programs. Creating a federal interagency work group on breastfeeding could help overcome these challenges and improve coordination and collaboration across agencies to improve support for breastfeeding.