How can countries better protect, promote and support breastfeeding as part of a wider approach to preventing non-communicable diseases and reducing health inequalities?
This question was at the centre of the second in-person meeting of JA PreventNCD teams working on Baby-Friendly Community and Health Services (BFC&HS, Task 6.5), held in Rome from 11 to 12 June 2026. Hosted by the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS), the meeting brought together the joint Italy-Norway coordination team, country delegates and international experts to exchange experiences, strengthen collaboration and advance practical work on Baby-Friendly Community and Health Services across Europe.
Breastfeeding is closely linked to lifelong health, but support for breastfeeding cannot be left to individual mothers alone. Families need consistent, evidence-based guidance from health professionals, supportive community services, protection from conflicts of interest, and environments that make breastfeeding possible in everyday life.
Within JA PreventNCD, the BFC&HS work focuses on protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding as a structural and equity-focused pathway to reduce non-communicable diseases across Europe. It builds on the Baby-Friendly Community framework, adapting the Norwegian Baby-Friendly Community Health Services model to different national and local contexts.
The framework focuses on the first 1,000 days of life and aims to embed support for breastfeeding within communities and health systems. It is currently being implemented across Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and Ukraine. The work recognises that early-life support is not only a health issue, but also a matter of equity, social justice and long-term prevention.
The Rome meeting provided an important opportunity for participating countries to share field experiences, discuss implementation challenges and refine common approaches. Participants explored how monitoring systems can support progress, how capacity-building tools can strengthen professional practice, and how national and local implementation can be adapted while remaining aligned with shared European objectives.
The programme combined policy updates with practical workshops. Day one included discussions on European policy blueprints and the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, with a focus on ethical integrity, conflicts of interest and the importance of protecting public health from inappropriate commercial influence.
Participants also discussed epidemiological monitoring and data-sharing models, including examples from the WHO European Region and the Italian 0-2 Year Children Surveillance System. These discussions highlighted the importance of reliable data for understanding breastfeeding support, identifying gaps and strengthening accountability.
Day two focused on social justice and the role of breastfeeding support in reducing early-life inequalities. Participants reviewed two important tools:
- BreastFEEDucation, a joint e-learning programme developed to strengthen breastfeeding counselling across Europe, and;
- the UNICEF Competency Verification Toolkit.
The meeting concluded with a World Café workshop, where participants mapped local implementation steps and discussed how to translate shared learning into practical action.
The meeting also connected directly with the launch of BreastFEEDucation, a free and flexible online course designed for healthcare professionals, students and educators who want to provide consistent, evidence-based support to families. The course includes real-life cases, expert insights and practical demonstrations, and is aligned with WHO/UNICEF Baby-Friendly standards.
Together, these activities represent an important step in strengthening breastfeeding support as part of NCD prevention. By combining policy, professional training, monitoring and local implementation, JA PreventNCD is working to ensure that breastfeeding is supported not only as an individual practice, but as part of healthier, fairer and more supportive communities across Europe.