Editorial

Health professionals' advice for breastfeeding problems: Not good enough!

Lisa H Amir^1,2 and Jennifer Ingram³

¹  Mother & Child Health Research, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

²  Key Centre for Women's Health in Society, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

³  Centre for Child & Adolescent Health, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

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International Breastfeeding Journal 2008, 3:22doi:10.1186/1746-4358-3-22

Published:	11 September 2008

Abstract

Jane Scott and colleagues have recently published a paper in the International Breastfeeding Journal showing that health professionals are still giving harmful advice to women with mastitis. We see the management of mastitis as an illustration of health professionals' management of wider breastfeeding issues. If health professionals don't know how to manage this common problem, how can they be expected to manage less common conditions such as a breast abscess or nipple/breast candidiasis? There is an urgent need for more clinical research into breastfeeding problems and to improve the education of health professionals to enable them to promote breastfeeding and support breastfeeding women.