It's World Breastfeeding Week!

August 1-7, 2010 is World Breastfeeding Week.  The brainchild of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), this year’s theme is “Breastfeeding: Just Ten Steps!  The Baby Friendly Way.”

What are those ten steps? Twenty years ago, the Innocenti Declaration outlined a vision that every facility providing maternity services and care for newborn infants would:

1. Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.

2. Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.

3. Inform all pregnant mothers about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.

4. Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within a half-hour of birth.

5. Show mothers how to breastfeed, and how to maintain lactation even if they should be separated from their infants.

6. Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breastmilk unless medically indicated.

7. Practice rooming-in—allow mothers and infants to remain together—24 hours a day.

8. Encourage breastfeeding on demand.

9. Give no artificial teats or pacifiers (also called dummies or soothers) to breastfeeding infants.

10. Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic.

Today, 28% of all maternity facilities in the world, in more than 152 countries, have implemented these steps. UNICEF recently noted that child deaths around the world declined from 13 million in 1990 to 8.8 million in 2008 in part due to increased early and exclusive breastfeeding. However, much more remains to be done.

For ideas on how to celebrate and promote World Breastfeeding Week in your community, please visit http://worldbreastfeedingweek.org/.