It would be great if ABA could give everyone free memberships. they would probably love nothing more but unfortunately being not for profit they need to do something to raise funds to print all that info that everyone wants, to train more counsellors to help mothers, to train community educators ad all the other wonderful things that they do. If it had been on offer when I was first pregnant I would not have hesitated in doing a breastfeeding education class even if it did cost $100 I paid that for a stupid antenatal talk that told me everythign that I could of read in the hospital info booklet. Paying the money for a class or membership that will help you to BF is going to save you heaps of money in the long run. I know they'd love to run ads but advertising campaigns cost millions of dollars. The recent budget allocated 8.7 million to b'feeding. Not sure how much ABA gets but even if they got the whole amount it wouldn't be enough to run a health campaign and offer free membership to the approx 250 000 births a year. The national helpline to set up will cost a couple of million dollars alone. Kim beazley pledged he would fund this when he was still leader of the opposition- wonder if they still will???
Kelly I think it would be great to have the committee view this thread.
And if anyone finds out about any more hearings and you can go along the do it. The more people that add their voice the better the results.