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World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated from August 1 to 7. (Image: Shutterstock)
World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated to raise public awareness about the benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and child. This year’s theme is “Closing the gap: supporting breastfeeding for all.”
World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated in more than 120 countries from 1 to 7 August. Breastfeeding is essential for a child's sustainable development, improving nutrition, ensuring food security and reducing inequality at both international and national levels. All forms of childhood malnutrition, including wasting and obesity, can be prevented by breastfeeding a child until they are 2 years old. In addition, breastfeeding also serves as a baby's first vaccine, protecting them from a variety of common childhood diseases.
History of World Breastfeeding Week
World Breastfeeding Week, first observed in 1992, honors the Innocenti Declaration, signed in August 1990 by government officials, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other organizations to protect, promote and support breastfeeding. The main objectives of the week are to raise awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding, support and encourage it, and improve the health of mothers and babies worldwide.
World Breastfeeding Week, which focuses on healthy eating, poverty eradication and ensuring access to food, aims to raise awareness of the enormous benefits that breastfeeding can have for both maternal and child health and the well-being of the infant. The objectives of this week are twofold: to improve the health of babies and to defend, advocate for and assert women's rights to breastfeed whenever and wherever they choose.
World Breastfeeding Week Theme
Every year, World Breastfeeding Day is celebrated with a new theme chosen by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA). “Closing the gap: supporting breastfeeding for all” is this year’s theme. The campaign will highlight ways in which families, communities, societies and health professionals can support all breastfeeding mothers, while celebrating them in all their diversity and throughout their breastfeeding journey.
Importance and benefits of breastfeeding
- Promoting breastfeeding as an important means of providing newborns with the best nutrition and immunity is the importance of World Breastfeeding Week.
- In addition to providing all the nutrients a baby needs, breast milk also contains antibodies, enzymes and other essential components that protect children from diseases and infections.
- In addition, breastfeeding helps mothers strengthen the mother-child bond, speed up postpartum recovery, and reduce the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
- Throughout the week, events, seminars and workshops are organised worldwide to address the challenges faced by mothers and to increase awareness about the benefits of breastfeeding.
- These events also show how important it is to have supportive policies, accommodating employers and a culture of understanding to foster an atmosphere where breastfeeding is accepted and encouraged.
World Breastfeeding Week 2024 Quotes
- “It’s a very beautiful journey and it doesn’t take long.” – Holistic Mom
- “Breastfeeding is a gift a mother gives to herself, her baby, and the Earth.” – Pamela K Wiggins
- “Bottles fill your stomach, but breastfeeding fills your soul.” – Diane Wiessinger, IBCLC
- “Don’t cry over spilled milk. Unless it’s breast milk, in which case, cry a lot.”
- “Nursing gives you superhuman powers. How else would I be doing all this if I’m normally a sleep addict?”
