World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world. It commemorates the Innocenti Declaration signed in August, 1990 by government policymakers, the UN World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other organizations to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.
This year, WHO is working with UNICEF and partners to promote the importance of family-friendly policies to enable breastfeeding and help parents nurture and bond with their children in early life, when it matters most. Focusing on supporting both parents to be empowered is vital in order to realize their breastfeeding goals. This includes establishing paid maternity leave for a minimum of 18 weeks, and paid paternity leave to encourage shared responsibility of caring for their children on an equal basis. In Canada you can receive parental benefits after your baby is born. These benefit periods are:
Standard parental: within 52 weeks (12 months)
Extended parental: within 78 weeks (18 months)
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Mothers also need access to a parent-friendly workplace to protect and support their ability to continue breastfeeding upon return to work by having access to breastfeeding breaks; a safe, private, and hygienic space for expressing and storing breast milk; and affordable childcare.
Breastfeeding promotes better health for mothers and children alike. Increasing breastfeeding to near-universal levels could save more than 800,000 lives every year, the majority being children under six months. Breastfeeding decreases the risk of mothers 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. Breastfeeding is also food security in situations of natural disasters and poverty.
WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding starting within one hour after birth until a baby is six months old. Nutritious complementary foods should then be added while continuing to breastfeed for up to two years or beyond.
When fathers, partners, families, workplaces, and communities support her, breastfeeding improves.
Breastfeeding is a universal solution that levels the playing field, giving everyone a fair start in life.
It improves the health, wellbeing and survival of women and children around the world.
Karen Irvine is a lactation consultant with BabyMoon Childbirth Services.