World Breastfeeding Week in 2023 starts on Aug. 1 and will run until Aug. 7. The global event is meant to celebrate and promote the importance of breastfeeding for infants and young kids.
More than 170 countries worldwide observe this particular week's event every year in an attempt to raise awareness about the advantages of breastfeeding and to encourage its practices.
World Breastfeeding Week 2023
For this year's celebration, the theme is "Let's make breastfeeding and work, work." This emphasizes the crucial role that is played by both mothers and fathers in supporting the act of breastfeeding and also highlights the need for creating a supportive environment that gives a positive outlook to breastfeeding as it provides for the health and well-being of the child.
The first time that breastfeeding week was celebrated was in 1992 when the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), which is a global network that advocates for the protection, promotion, and support of breastfeeding worldwide, decided to begin the yearly event, as per Only My Health.
The timing of this week's celebration commemorates the World Health Organization's (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) signing of the Innocenti Declaration on breastfeeding in 1990. It seeks to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding and infant health on a global scale.
Every year, breastfeeding week raises awareness on a particular theme in an attempt to address various relevant issues and challenges that are related to the act. The theme is meant to provide a framework for various organizations, governments, and individuals to come together, share information, and work together toward promoting breastfeeding itself.
The main point of breastfeeding week is to promote the act as a fundamental way of giving optimal nutrition and immunity to infants worldwide. A mother's breast milk is a complete source of nutrition that provides numerous health benefits, such as antibodies and enzymes that help protect children from infections and other diseases.
Benefits of Breastfeeding
This year's theme also aims to advocate for essential maternity rights that support breastfeeding, such as maternity leave for a minimum of 18 weeks, an ideal time is more than six months, and workplace accommodations after their leave, according to BQPrime.
The WHO said that there are more than half a billion working women who are not provided the essential maternity protections in national laws that they need. Only 20% of nations worldwide require employers to give employees paid breaks and facilities for breastfeeding or expressing milk.
The global health agency also noted that around 2.7 million deaths among kids are recorded every year, which is 45% of all child deaths, and are associated with undernutrition. Experts say that breastfeeding is an effective way of promoting healthy growth and development among young kids.
Particularly, breastfeeding exclusively for six months provides many benefits to an infant as well as the mother. The Who and UNICEF provided breastfeeding guidelines for new mothers on how to properly breastfeed their children.
The agencies noted that mothers should initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth and that they should exclusively breastfeed for the first six months of their child's life. Additionally, the baby should be introduced to safe foods at six months but still continue to be breastfed up to two years of age or even longer, said NDTV.
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