Happy World Breastfeeding Week!
MANA celebrates with all nations across the globe – World Breastfeeding Week!
August 1-7 commemorates the Innocenti Declaration signed in August 1990 by WHO, UNICEF and other organizations to protect, promote and support breastfeeding. This is a global campaign to raise awareness and action on all things breastfeeding. This years theme is “Support Breastfeeding For A Healthier Planet”
#WBW2020 will focus on the impact of infant feeding on the environment/climate change and the imperative to protect, promote and support breastfeeding for the health of the planet and its people. Together let’s highlight the links between breastfeeding and the environment/climate change.
Did you know?
- Only 2 in 5 children in low-middle income countries are put to the breast in the first hour of life.
- Breastfeeding can be linked to all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
- In the midst of this pandemic, WHO states “The numerous benefits of skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding substantially outweigh the potential risks of transmission and illness associated with COVID-19.”
- Increasing breastfeeding to near-universal levels could save more than 800,000 lives every year, the majority being children under 6 months.
- Breastfeeding decreases the risk of nursing parent developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
- It is estimated that increased breastfeeding could avert 20 000 maternal deaths each year due to breast cancer.
Midwives Alliance of North America strongly recommends exclusive breastfeeding starting within one hour after birth until a baby is at least 6 months old.
Happy World Breastfeeding Week!
