World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA)’s 22nd Annual World Breastfeeding Week begins this week (August 1).
The theme is BREASTFEEDING SUPPORT: CLOSE TO MOTHERS.
This year they have chosen to highlight peer counseling – training community members to support breastfeeding mothers in their local communities.
WABA’s vision is “A world where breastfeeding is the cultural norm, where mothers and families are enabled to feed and care optimally for their infants and young children thus contributing to a just and healthy society.” Their peer counselor program is a cost-effective and highly productive way to reach many more new mothers, fostering “continued day-to-day support for the breastfeeding mother within her home and community.”
To celebrate World Breastfeeding Week, I’m happy to be able to point out some of the positive breastfeeding stories in the news:
A mom was breastfeeding her one year- old son at a restaurant during her birthday dinner. She then went out to the car to finish feeding him since she thought it might be upsetting other diners.
When her husband went to pay the bill he found a note from their waitress on the receipt, “I bought one of your pizzas … please thank your wife for breastfeeding!!”
And also:
“In what will be seen as a huge coup for the Breast is Best lobby, royal sources have revealed that Princess Kate, 31, has decided to feed baby George naturally rather than use formula milk in a bottle,” writes the Daily Mirror in this 7/23 article about the royal baby’s feeding habits. “The Duchess’s decision to breastfeed her son is expected to trigger a trend among new mums keen to emulate her.”
Breastfeeding is not just for royalty, though. It’s cheaper, easier, and more convenient than feeding babies artificial milk and economically disadvantaged women can benefit tremendously, physically, psychologically, and financially from nursing their babies.
We’re eager to see how Kate’s healthy choices create a ripple effect for young moms around the world.
Here at Fearless Parent we know that women’s social networks and mother-to-mother support are powerful, generating positive wave patterns everyday. This type of advocacy will change the world, one mother-baby pair at a time.
So the next time you’re out in public and see a breastfeeding mom, give an encouraging and compassionate smile. You just might make her day.
This post is the last in a series of three articles. (Part 1) (Part 2)
Cornelia Mazzan is a co-founder, writer, and all-around design guru for Fearless Parent. She believes in mothers and the power they have to transform the world.
Cornelia,
Your commitment to speaking out on behalf of mothers and babies that have been unfairly shamed by others for doing something so natural and beautiful is awesome! I unfortunately had a terrible experience in a very popular local restaurant where I live in central New Jersey. Over a year ago, I was lunching in this small cafe with my husband, my sister and my then one-year-old son. I was discreetly nursing him at the table as I ate. I noticed my waitress whispering and staring at me from the kitchen. She made it obvious that she was disgusted by what she saw me doing. I of course continued to feed my baby ignoring her attempts to make me as uneasy as possible. This waitress proceeded to involve all the other female employees in her whispering session. One by one they walked by casting dirty looks at me. I finally got up from the table to reach out for the support and help of the female manager. To my surprise, she told me she wanted to call the police on me for exposing myself like that in a public place and that I was making her staff extremely uncomfortable. I was stunned! Keep in mind that I’ve been nursing in restaurants for years. Jude is my third child and I nursed my older two children until the age of three. Luckily, I’m not new to breastfeeding and have a very strong sense of my right to feed my baby anywhere I choose. I stood up for our right that day. I told her to go ahead and call the police – that I had every legal right to feed my baby in the restaurant. There were other words exchanged which I won’t share. I was furious. I did call the owner the following day. I informed him that I would stage a breastfeeding sit-in in front of his restaurant and notify all the local press along with the natural Mothering community publications. I promptly received a call from his manager apologizing for her behavior. It was a small consolation for the harassment my child and I were subjected to. This sad incident just should never have happened. Hopefully exposing this issue will help prevent anyone else from dealing with such ignorance.
Thank you again, Cornelia. xx
Aimee