It's that time of the year again! Everybody around me is rejoicing, celebrating, congratulating each other on the great year that is behind us. Pictures of cute babies all around our social media. The sense of community and togetherness reaches its peak. Oh the joy!
You guessed it! Just kidding. You are probably wondering: ,, What the hell is she writing about?!''
Well, happy World Breastfeeding Week!!!
World Breastfeeding Week is officially celebrated on 1-7 August every year to mark the anniversary of the Innocenti Declaration, however, some countries hold their celebrations at different times of the year. One of those is also Croatia. We have our national breastfeeding week in the first week of October.
From 2016 onwards efforts are made to transform WBW from a celebration for one week in a year into a showcase of the efforts made to protect, promote and support breastfeeding for all 51 weeks in a year. This year over 120 countries, along with organizations like UNICEF, WHO, FAO and IPA, recognized the importance of raising breastfeeding awareness around the globe and the positive impacts that rising of the breastfeeding rates have, not only for the child, mother and the family but the society as a whole.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of celebrating World Breastfeeding Week. It all started in 1991. when The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) was formed to act on the Innocenti Declaration (1990) to protect, promote and support breastfeeding. As part of its action plan to facilitate and strengthen social mobilization for breastfeeding, WABA envisioned a global unifying breastfeeding promotion strategy. A day dedicated to breastfeeding was suggested to be marked in the calendar of international events. The idea of a day's celebration was later turned into a week.
Overall coordination of WBW is done at the WABA Secretariat in Penang, Malaysia, which includes the selection of the theme and slogan, identifying resource persons for a specific theme and the preparation and dissemination of WBW materials such as the calendar announcement, posters, action folders and banners. These advocacy materials serve to stimulate action among local groups, governments, UN and other agencies and other issue organizations for their own WBW activities in their area/country. In coordinating World Breastfeeding Week, WABA works closely with many organizations and individuals. Our partners in this effort include the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as our core partners : the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM), International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA), La Leche League International (LLLI) and Wellstart International.
WABA does not accept sponsorship of any kind from companies producing breastmilk substitutes, related equipment and complementary foods. WABA encourages all participants of World Breastfeeding Week to respect and follow this ethical stance.
This year theme is ''Sustaining Breastfeeding Together''. There are four objectives we should aspire to:
- TO INFORM: Understanding the importance of working together.
- TO ANCHOR: Recognising the role each one of us has in the supporting of families and the difference we can make within our area of work.
- TO ENGAGE: Working on reaching out to others to establish areas of common interest.
- TO GALVANISE: Working together to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Sustainable development is essentially about ecology, economy and equity but I'll make sure to write more about the link of reaching the Sustainable Development Goals and breastfeeding as the week progresses. Search for #WBW2017 on your favorite social media platform, besides Steemit, and on http://worldbreastfeedingweek.org/index.shtml
It really does take a village to breastfeed one kid and as the great Helen Keller said: ,, Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much. ''