More Than Just Pretty Pictures
World Breastfeeding Week is a time of year when beautiful images of breastfed babies fill social media platforms. And while these images are lovely to look at, they don’t explain the message of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) and World Breastfeeding Week, and they don’t provide support or education about breast/chestfeeding.
So what is the message of #worldbreastfeedingweek2022?
Covid-19 and Breastfeeding
It is a fact that human milk is perfect nutrition and provides immune support to babies. In addition, breast/chestfeeding promotes bonding between a mother and child. What often is not talked about is that breastmilk supplies food security to infants, which impacts food security for entire families.
Several factors associated with the world wide pandemic contribute to lowered breast/chestfeeding implementation and sustainability.
- Inequalities have widened due to Covid-19, and other geopolitical conflicts. This gap puts more people into food insecurity.
- With the extra demands on health care systems, breastfeeding support lessened.
- Social distancing also contributed to the lack of support for skilled breastfeeding counseling.
- In some places, infants were separated from their mothers as part of the Covid-19 protocol, further diminishing breastfeeding.
- During this time, the breastmilk substitutes industry (BMS) played on the fear of Covid-19, using marketing tactics to scare parents into believing that formula was a safer way to feed their babies. You can read the full story here: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2381/htm.
#wbw2022
With the mother/baby dyad being the center, the initiative of World Breastfeeding week 2022 is to “Step up for Breastfeeding” through “Education and Support.” Women need education and support beginning in the first trimester. Doing this requires the help of many people or actors. This support has many levels from healthcare service, workplace, and community. Evidence-based information training those supporting the mother/baby dyad is necessary to implement successful breast/chestfeeding. This is what the World Breastfeeding Week campaign refers to as the warm chain.
The Warm Chain
According to WABA, everyone has a role in the warm chain. Click here to do your part in the initiative to step up for breastfeeding.
Images provided by: https://worldbreastfeedingweek.org/stepping-up-the-warm-chain/
The Objectives of World Breastfeeding Week
The objectives of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week campaign are to inform, anchor, engage and galvanize.
- Inform people of their role in the warm chain.
- Anchor breastfeeding as a means to reduce inequalities and increase food security.
- Engage with people and organizations supporting breastfeeding.
- Galvinize action to strengthen the capacity of systems for transformational change.
Step up for Breastfeeding
At Orlando Doulas LLC, we support the initiative of WABA and World Breastfeeding Week.
We step up for breastfeeding.
We are committed to staying up to date with evidence-based information about breast/chestfeeding and providing you with that information. And while we continue to support your choice to feed your baby any way you choose, we understand our role in the warm chain supporting human milk feeding.
We aren’t going to fill your FB and IG feeds with perfect pictures of breast/chestfeeding because we know the struggle that many have finding education and support to learn and sustain this feeding method.
Instead we will be here to answer your questions and provide resources to support your feeding journey.
References
- https://worldbreastfeedingweek.org
- https://worldbreastfeedingweek.org/2022/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/wbw2022-Action%20Folder.pdf
