Expert Panel on Breastfeeding

The Expert Panel on Breastfeeding serves as the key catalyst for innovations in research, education policy regarding the use of human milk and breastfeeding.

Inaugural Year: 2002

Chair:
Eric Hodges, PhD, FNP-BC, FAAN
Associate Professor
UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing

Vice Chair:
Diane L. Spatz, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN
Professor of Perinatal Nursing & The Helen M. Shearer Professor of Nutrition
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

Board Liaison: Versie Mallard Johnson

Staff Liaison: Madeleine Rohrbach

Previous Chairs: JoAnne Silbert-Flagg (2020-2022), Elizabeth Reifsnider (2019-2020), Jeannette Crenshaw (2018-2019), Emily Drake (2017-2018), Joan Dodgson (2016-2017), Diane Spatz (2009-2016), Paula Meier (2007), Linda Pugh (2007), Pamela Dee Hill (2006), Sharron S. Humenick (2006), Maureen Groer (2005), Gene Cranston Anderson (2003-2005) 

Summary:
The lack of breastfeeding in the United States is a public health crisis. Today only 13% of US children receive exclusive human milk for the first 6 months despite the recommendation by organizations worldwide that all infants receive exclusive human milk for 6 months.

Recent Publications:

• Policy Brief: Supporting breastfeeding for infants born to opioid-dependent mothers June 18, 2018 (September-October 2018) 
• Policy Brief: Pregnant and Parenting Women with a Substance Use Disorder: Actions and Policy for Enduring Therapeutic Practice (March-April 2019)
• Policy Brief: Call for improved military policy to support breastfeeding among U.S. armed forces. (May/June 2017) 
• Policy Brief: Call to Action - Human milk and breastfeeding: An intervention to mitigate toxic stress. (February 2017) 
  
• Policy Brief: Position statement regarding the use of informally shared human milk. (January 2016) 

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