Project page: www.projeto.faam.pt
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The National Breastfeeding Friendly Pharmacy Project (FAAM) is coordinated by Adriana Pereira and dreamed and designed by her since 2001. This initiative began in Italy in 2007, being integrated into the Association Il Melograno Italy.
The FAAM project uses a protocol composed of indications that give pharmacists an important role in protecting and supporting breastfeeding. It is a project that involves Human Rights, you Children's Rights and the Women's Rights. It is aimed at Pharmacies and all those who work there who provide care to pregnant women and lactating mothers and who wish to respond to the objectives of this initiative. The essential objective is to contribute to increasing breastfeeding rates.
The Pharmacy that adheres to the protocol is in accordance with what is recommended by the WHO and UNICEF: breast milk is the species-specific food to feed children and mothers must be supported to breastfeed exclusively until the end of the child's six months of life and continue to breastfeed even after the introduction of complementary foods up to two years or more.
Mothers and new parents, for whom the Pharmacy is a reference point for advice on their child's health, are also supported in this health practice.
Therefore, the initiative is articulated in this way:
- Training of pharmacists according to the standards proposed by WHO/UNICEF for health professionals.
- Organization in the Pharmacy of a small space in which the mother who wishes to breastfeed can find a welcoming place.
- Adaptation of exhibition spaces for the products mentioned in the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes, prepared by WHO and UNICEF and approved in 1981 by the World Health Assembly and the main companies producing foods for children. The Code is designed to protect mothers and breastfeeding mothers from the food industry's aggressive marketing to children.
- Promotion of the culture of breastfeeding, conveyed through the use of images appealing to breastfeeding in the Pharmacy.
- Activation of initiatives and projects in the territory and in the community to be developed in a network with other social actors who protect breastfeeding.