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World Breastfeeding Month 2017
Aspen Valley Hospital and World Breastfeeding Week Promotes Breastfeeding Support throughout the Community
August is World Breastfeeding Month, an annual celebration of breastfeeding to increase breastfeeding awareness to improve the health of mothers and babies. The Aspen Birth Center Lactation Consultants and team will host Free Milkshakes in the Castle Creek Café from 12-2pm, Friday, August 11th.
The Colorado WIC Program’s theme for WBW is Find Your Village. This theme aims to highlight focus areas within the community where families can and should find breastfeeding support.
The Colorado theme was adapted from the 2017 World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) WBW theme, Sustaining Breastfeeding Together. The 2017 theme asks the world to work together for the “common good, which produces sustainable results, greater than the sum of our individual efforts.”
The Colorado theme was adapted to make the WABA theme more easily understandable and relatable with a goal of promoting the importance of breastfeeding support within a community. An individual’s breastfeeding success involves finding support from all different areas in the community. It is important to help moms find support systems specific to their situation.
Breastfeeding support can be found in seven key areas throughout Colorado communities, including:
Healthcare providers
Community resources (LLL, COBFC, public spaces, etc.)
Work and school
Child care professionals
Family and friends
Breastfeeding significantly impacts the health and wellbeing of mothers and babies, both in the short and long term. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests breastfeeding for at least one year due to numerous health benefits to mom and baby. Studies show that breastfed infants are less likely to develop ear infections, respiratory illnesses, diabetes, some childhood cancers and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and less likely to become obese later in life and compared to formula fed infants.
Breastfeeding not only directly impacts the health of the family, but also has an impact on the health of the entire community and the world. Breastfeeding is a low cost way of feeding babies, helping to reduce poverty and prevent hunger, undernutrition and obesity.
The health benefits of breastfeeding only increase as breastfeeding exclusivity and duration increase. The Colorado Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides breastfeeding education and support to Colorado families. WIC supports low-income mothers by providing highly nutritious food packages purchased at participating grocery stores, free access to breastfeeding information and counseling, breast pumps, community resources and referrals, and mom-to-mom support through the Breastfeeding Peer Counselor program. Aspen Valley Hospital hosts “Bosom Buddies” social and support group for new moms, weekly in the Aspen Birth Center form 11am-12:30pm.
How can you get involved? Visit WABA’s site at www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org or www.breastfeedcolorado.com under Campaigns for more details, including an idea action packet with free materials. Sign up for news and action alerts to celebrate National Breastfeeding Awareness month (NBM) in August at www.usbreastfeeding.org/NBM. Help to promote breastfeeding by supporting moms in public, in the workplace and in child care.
To utilize the valuable breastfeeding information and resources available at your local WIC office, call 1-800-688-7777, email cdphe_askwic@state.co.us or visit www.coloradowic.com.
Join the nation and world in celebrating and promoting breastfeeding during the entire month of August!
Heather Knott, RN-IBCLC
