History
Mary Paton founded the Nursing Mothers' Association with five other mothers in Melbourne after having difficulty breastfeeding her first child. Doctors and nurses at the time were not trained to handle breastfeeding problems and with the modern nuclear family there were few older women to turn to for advice, so the founding members supported each other, thus creating the model for mother-to-mother support than continues today.
The other founders were Glenise Francis, Pat Patterson, Jan Barry (a member of the Coles family), Pauline Pick and Sue Woods.
In 1981 she received an Advance Australia Award and in 1993 was Family Circle magazine's 'Woman of the Year.' She was awarded an Order of the General Division of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1978.
In 2001, NMAA changed its name to Australian Breastfeeding Association and Paton was included in the Victorian Honour Roll of Women as part of the Centenary of Federation's Ordinary Woman: Extraordinary lives.
In March 2004 Paton became an Australian Living Treasure. On the 2006 Australia Day Honours list Mary Paton OAM, was awarded the higher honour of Member (AM) in the general division - 'for service to the community as the founder of the Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia, and to the development of policies, protocols, management, support and training methods to assist nursing mothers and their babies.'
The Australian Breastfeeding Association have a vision statement, a mission statement and a set of objectives.
Vision Statement Breastfeeding is the normal way to feed and nurture infants, with babies being breastfed exclusively for 6 months and continuing to breastfeed for 2 years and beyond.
Mission Statement As Australia’s leading authority on breastfeeding, we: - educate society and support mothers, using up-to-date research findings and the practical experiences of many women - influence society to acknowledge breastfeeding as normal and important to parenting and the physical and mental health of babies, children and mothers.
Objectives: Breastfeeding support - Provide mothers with practical mother-to-mother support, enabling them to establish a loving relationship with their babies through breastfeeding, and educate the broader community that breastfeeding is normal
Financial viability - Provide for financial security and economic sustainability, by protecting and increasing the real value of our financial assets, investing our assets well and using our financial and people resources economically
Training, education and resources - Provide high quality and accessible training, education and resources to ensure skilled, knowledgeable and practical breastfeeding support for mothers
Advocacy, policy and research - Strengthen the advocacy, policy and research work of the Australian Breastfeeding Association and our partners, in order to improve breastfeeding outcomes
Public awareness, profile and marketing - Maintain the Australian Breastfeeding Association as an authoritative and high profile organisation and ensure public awareness of the importance of breastfeeding and how to protect, support and promote it Governance and organisational development - Develop an effective, representative, well-managed and accountable organisation
Read more about this topic: Australian Breastfeeding Association
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