Medical Education and Leadership in Breastfeeding Medicine

Physicians' experience with high quality training in breastfeeding during their medical education is historically varied. The process of becoming a board-certified physician entails more than 20 years of education, and although medical school and residency training timelines and courses are relatively standardized across the United States and even internationally, breastfeeding education varies greatly across schools and programs. The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) exists, in part, because historically, physicians have received too little clinical training in breastfeeding and infant nutrition. An overarching goal of ABM, which is a multispecialty organization of doctors around the world, is to educate all maternal-child healthcare professionals, not just physicians, about breastfeeding. Within the field of medicine, family doctors, pediatricians, and obstetrician/gynecologists are considered the most logical source of breastfeeding expertise. However, the need for breastfeeding education goes beyond those providers who have obvious interactions with mothers and babies. We must educate anesthesiologists, surgeons, internists, and psychiatrists, among others. Building pipelines of physicians who are well educated in breastfeeding medicine allows more effective collaboration and care of mothers and infants among providers in various medical and surgical specialties as well as between doctors and other healthcare providers. This evidence-based education needs to be multifaceted, with didactic curricula for a strong knowledge base complemented by clinical experiences for skill development and application. Clinical knowledge and skills can also be reinforced during nonclinical opportunities in teaching, research, advocacy, and professional development. In this article, we describe a foundational framework for physician education in breastfeeding medicine as well as several creative noncurricular opportunities to develop breastfeeding expertise in future physician leaders. We conclude with a case study.