World Breastfeeding Week

World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is celebrated every year from 1 to 7 August across the globe. The theme of WBW 2023 is “Let’s make breastfeeding and work, work!”. The main aim of celebrating World Breastfeeding Week is to create awareness among the people especially in expecting and nursing mothers about the importance of breastfeeding for the health of mother and infant. Medical experts are of the opinion that there is a dire need to educate people about the importance of mother’s milk for the baby. That is why during this week seminars and symposia are held across the world expressing concern over the increasing reluctance of mothers to breastfeed their babies. The experts also warn about the increasing incidences of diseases related to this trend. Working women especially have been seen to avoid breastfeeding their babies attributing their reluctance to the workload. Mother’s milk is not only vital for baby’s health, but also saves the mother from many diseases. It has been shown to have significant role in reducing the infant mortality rate. Breast cancer is one of the fastest growing diseases found among women, the incidence being more in developed countries and cosmopolitan cities of developing world where fast pace of life takes toll on the personal life of men and women alike. According to WHO, ‘in 2020, there were 2.3 million women diagnosed with breast cancer and 685 000 deaths globally. At of the end of 2020, there were 7.8 million women alive who were diagnosed with breast cancer in the past 5 years, making it the world’s most prevalent cancer’. The figure speaks for the magnitude of the problem. The first and important step for addressing the issue is to hold awareness programmes with active coordination between government agencies and organizations working in community health care sector. Medical science has established the benefits of breastfeeding. According to the medical experts, early breastfeeding cessation is very important to the health of mother and child. Furthermore, breastfeeding not only improves child survival in the first year of life, but it also lowers the incidence of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, breast, and ovarian cancer in breastfeeding moms.  Mother’s milk contains the right amount of nutrients in right proportions ensuring that the baby gets the perfect balanced meal. It is not only rich in nutrients but also acts as shield against the diseases. Breastfeeding saves the lives of infants and also reduce their disease burden.  The need of the hour is to implement an education program among nursing mothers that focuses on the importance of breastfeeding during early essential care of the infants. In many cases women do not choose to breastfeed as long as recommended by health experts.  To counter the dangerous trend emerging from the practice of feeding the babies on artificial food products, women at large should be encouraged to learn about breastfeeding by providing them breastfeeding education classes.