For World Breastfeeding Week, moms and babies invited to Nunavut-wide challenge

To encourage women to breastfeed their babies, the Government of Nunavut has prepared information on “breastfeeding basics.” (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE GN)

If you’re breastfeeding your baby, you’re following the recommendations of the World Health Organization and the Government of Nunavut’s Health Department, which both recommend that all babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months.

During World Breastfeeding Week, which Nunavut celebrates in the first week of October, breastfeeding mothers are invited to participate in a territorial breastfeeding challenge.

The challenge is to have the most mothers breastfeeding at one time in one place, and all communities in Nunavut are encouraged to participate, the GN said in a recent public service announcement.

Some communities like Baker Lake have already held their challenge event, while Cambridge Bay will hold a get-together at the elders palace on Tuesday evening from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. for babies, preschoolers and their mothers, where they’ll find refreshments, games and prizes and information about “breastfeeding is best.”

Breast milk is the best food for babies’ optimal health and growth, said the GN: it protects against ear infections, respiratory tract infections, pneumonia, diarrhea and sudden infant death syndrome and is cost-effective and convenient.

But breastfeeding is a learned skill that is not always easy: “We all play a role in supporting breastfeeding mothers. Nurses, midwives, local Canada Prenatal Nutrition Programs and other mothers with breastfeeding experience can offer support,” said a news release.

Families can also support breastfeeding mothers by running errands or preparing nutritious foods, like qajuq (caribou stew) and natiminiq (seal meat), the release states.

To support breastfeeding, the GN has prepared online information on breastfeeding basics.

About six in 10 Nunavut women breastfeed their babies over some period of time, according to the Inuit Child Health Survey.

But only one in three babies is exclusively breastfed for six months, the period recommended by the WHO, which says exclusive breastfeeding to six months and breastfeeding up to two years and beyond protects children from infections and offers numerous lifelong health benefits.