During World Breastfeeding Week, WHO urges more support for breastfeeding moms

This breastfeeding mom in Cambridge Bay nurses two children at the same time — breastfeeding children up to two years and beyond is recommended by the World Health Organization, which is promoting breastfeeding worldwide during World Breastfeeding Week, August 1 to August 7. (FILE PHOTO)

August 1 marks the beginning of World Breastfeeding Week, celebrated every year from August 1 to August 7 in more than 170 countries. Its goal: to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies.

The week commemorates a declaration made by World Health Organization and UNICEF policymakers in August 1990 to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.

“Breastfeeding support: close to mothers” is the theme of the 2013 World Breastfeeding Week, which urges more support from governments and society for breastfeeding mothers.

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

But only one in three babies are exclusively breastfed for six months, the period recommended by the WHO

The WHO says breastfeeding is the best way to provide newborns with the nutrients they need, and they recommend exclusive breastfeeding until a baby is six months old, and continued breastfeeding with the addition of nutritious foods for up to two years or beyond.

Exclusive breastfeeding to six months and breastfeeding up to two years and beyond protects children from infections and offers numerous life-long health benefits, the WHO said in its statement on 2013’s World Breastfeeding Week.

People who were breastfed as babies are less likely to be overweight or obese later in life, they may have a reduced risk of diabetes and perform better in intelligence tests, the WHO said.

Its goal is to see half of babies world-wide breastfed by 2025 — that number now stands at 38 per cent.

But to be successful breastfeeding mothers need support.

Canada observes its National Breastfeeding Week in October when various events are organized throughout Nunavut to promote breastfeeding.

Last year a local chapter of La Leche League Canada – an international organization founded in 1961 to encourage mothers to meet and discuss baby issues, especially breastfeeding — formed in Iqaluit.

The group typically meets at house 2728D on the second Thursday of the month. The meetings are open to all women who are breastfeeding, as well as expecting moms, sisters, grandmothers and girlfriends.