World Breastfeeding Week to focus on Breastfeeding at the workplace this year

World Breastfeeding Week began on the 1st of August and will continue till the 7th this year. The theme this year is “Breastfeeding & Work: Let’s Make it Work!” This theme is based on the WABA’s (World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action) decision to restart their 1993 theme which focused on the empowerment of women to breastfeed while working at the same time.

This organization also believes women need to be able to breastfeed irrespective of the type of work they do or whether they are a stay-at-home mom or go to corporate offices. Breastfeeding has a large number of benefits for not just for babies but mothers too.

Breast milk is the most superior type of food that infants can consume even more than milk formulas. There is no other food which can provide the same nutritional value to kids. As per the WHO, feeding infants breast milk exclusively is advised till their 6th month of life. It may continue till the age of 2 as far as sufficient other food is also added to their diet.

Some of the benefits for babies while breastfeeding include:

The consumption of nutritionally balanced meals
Protection against childhood illnesses & infections like influenza, pneumonia and diarrhea
Optimum rate of survival, specifically in the 1st year of life
Decreased risk of getting SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), diabetes type 1, obesity, asthma, lactose intolerance, etc.

Some of the benefits for mothers include:

Decreased blood loss during postnatal period
Better weight loss post giving birth
Improved post-delivery healing
Decreased risk of postnatal period depression
Enhanced protection from ovarian cancer & hip fractures

Prolonged breastfeeding also offers advantages to the environment and society as well. Families aren’t sickly and this reduces the workload & burden on the health sector. Air pollution will be lowered because of decreased wastes from milk formula factories. And the best part is, breast milk is always at optimum temperature and ready to feed. It offers very less chances of contamination when fed directly to infants.