Abstract
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The proceedings, as in previous years, are guest edited by William D. Rhine, MD, from the Department of Pediatrics (Neonatology) of the Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, and Lars Bode, PhD, from the Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation Mother-Milk-Infant Center of Research Excellence, University of California, San Diego, California.
Presentations were from leading international experts from a wide variety of academic specialties. A special feature was the emphasis on the long-term health benefits of breastfeeding, both to the infant and the mother. The relationship of breastfeeding and the infant's microbiome was highlighted by more than one speaker.
The conference also was the setting of the awarding Ruth A. Lawrence Investigator Award for Research in Human Milk Science to Steven D. Townsend, PhD, for his research on the effect of the ingestion of human milk oligosaccharides as a basic defense mechanism against pathogens The award honored both Dr. Townsend for his current academic achievements and Dr. Lawrence for her pioneering activities in the development and support of the study of the science of breastfeeding and human lactation. Dr. Lawrence was the founding editor of Breastfeeding Medicine some 14 years ago, so it is most appropriate that the award in her name be properly highlighted in the pages of Breastfeeding Medicine, an endeavor most dear to her professional career.
Special thanks to Prolacta Bioscience for hosting the conference in September 2018 and in facilitating the publishing of the edited proceedings in Breastfeeding Medicine.