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Dear Breastfeeding Advocates,
World Breastfeeding Week is a celebration, highlighter and trigger of work on the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding! This year’s theme - Breastfeeding and Work: Let’s Make it Work! - is an opportunity to address the key issue of Maternity Protection for mothers working in the formal, informal and home setting.
Breastfeeding benefits everyone – mothers, babies, families, societies and even businesses. Supporting a mother in her effort to combine work (paid or otherwise) with breastfeeding guarantees her fundamental rights, freedom, and is a step in achieving equality.
It has been almost a hundred years since the International Labour Organisation (ILO) started the debate on labour standards and maternity protection. However, it is shocking that currently, 800 million women workers do not have access to adequate maternity protection, and there is insufficient or low take-up of paternal leave and other rights by fathers/partners. Working women often face discrimination, job insecurity, harassment, shame and guilt when they become mothers. Imagine that if these are the challenges faced by women within the “structured” environment of paid work, what women working in the informal/home setting face, with very little or no protection from labour laws.
It is vital that we involve men, young people, family members, employers and policy makers in the effort to empower working breastfeeding mothers. Breastfeeding is like a five-petal flower, each petal fulfilling an important function: it is a form of medicine, provides ideal nutrition, is the ecologically safer option, provides economic benefits and last but certainly not least, it is an expression of love. Therefore, as a system and as a society, we need to make breastfeeding and work, work!
Although the official “Week” is now over, our global celebration of breastfeeding and the campaign on Maternity Protection continues. Worldwide, the World Breastfeeding Week will be celebrated at different times, through different activities. Please read on to see how you can be part of the global World Breastfeeding Week celebration.
Dato’ Anwar Fazal is Chairperson Emeritus at WABA
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After celebrating the miraculous news of the three babies growing inside me, my mind shifted to logistics - would I be able to sufficiently feed them? On July 24, 2014, we were blessed with three perfectly healthy baby girls and I immediately began our first feedings. Surprisingly, they all latched on without any difficulty!
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When I returned home on day five, I contacted a certified lactation specialist to help determine how the babies were doing with feedings. She assured me that they were receiving plenty of milk at the breast and that supplementation was not necessary. I completely breastfed them during my maternity leave and they soon settled into a self-made feeding routine.
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After eight weeks my employer allowed me to come back to work part time and ease into my regular full time schedule. I expressed my breastmilk and was never questioned about how much time it would take me to feed. Of course, I respected the time given and had a routine quickly set up so I didn’t disrupt the work day too much.
At six months, I introduced solids to the babies. They quickly began progressing and feeding themselves fruits, vegetables, whole grains and meats and continued to breastfeed without any milk supplementation. Now, here we are just after their first birthday and besides a few (unwanted) bottles of formula at the hospital, our tiny babies have grown into chunky, healthy toddlers with the help of the best nutrition I can provide for them - breast milk!
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A response to “Why I’m not celebrating World Breastfeeding Week” by Dr. Amy Tuteur
August 5, 2015 – Dr. Amy Tuteur’s recent article in Time “Why I’m not celebrating World Breastfeeding Week” has stirred a great deal of controversy in the online community. There is no doubt that the topic of breastfeeding has to be debated openly with all sides having the opportunity to express their opinions freely, however, such discussions must be held in the spirit of kindness, sensitivity, and scientific objectivity.
In this article, there is opposition towards the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action’s vision of a world “where breastfeeding is a cultural norm”. However, it is important to differentiate between “cultural norm” (implying acceptance and normalisation of what is natural) and “moral imperative” (implying a demand and a sense of righteousness).
In a world where malnutrition and child mortality is still dangerously high, breastfeeding can serve as the answer. UNICEF UK states that there has been significant reliable evidence produced over recent years to show that breastfeeding is a major contributor to public health and has an important role to play in reducing health inequalities even in the industrialised countries of the world. This is backed by evidence-based research which can be found here.
The issue of working women is also an important consideration. The year 2019 marks both the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) 100th anniversary and the first centenary of international labour standards on maternity protection. The ILO recommends 14 weeks of paid maternity leave, but there is an obvious gap between this and the six months of exclusive breastfeeding recommended by WHO.
World Breastfeeding Week, through this year’s theme on “Women and Work – Let’s Make it Work!” aims to support working mothers in their effort to breastfeed their children. If there is any shame or pressure to be induced, it should be directed towards law-makers and employers who stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the feeding function of a woman’s breast.
In conclusion, celebrating the World Breastfeeding Week is the least we can do to restore respect towards motherhood and the needs of a breastfeeding mother. Celebrating this week can and will do much more good than harm for everyone concerned with the future of our generation.
Dr. Yulia Perch is a practicing psychiatrist in Long Beach, California, specialising in Women's and Reproductive psychiatry.
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July
The International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA) held its annual conference “ILCA 2015 Conference & Annual Meeting” from 22 – 25 July 2015 in Washington, USA. Anne Batterjee and Dr Rukhsana Haider, who are WABA Steering Committee members, represented WABA at this Conference.
Anne Batterjee gave a presentation at the 1st Partner’s Meeting held during the first day of this conference (July 22. 2015). This meeting was attended by 50-60 participants from the UK, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, USA, and Israel, including Dr Chessa Lutter, a PAHO representative.
Dr Miriam Labbok (WABA Steering Committee) along with Johanna Bergerman (WABA/ILCA Fellow) helped in setting up a booth and disseminating WABA materials at the conference.
  
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August
- WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK
Press Release
Celebrate WBW2015 - take action to support women in combining breastfeeding and work! Read the full WABA Press Release here
Social Media Toolkit
Join us in celebrating #WBW2015, and use our Social Media Toolkit to promote your own event.
In next month's WABALink, we will be featuring reports from WBW2015 celebrants from around the world.
- INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY (AUG 12)
International Youth Day, celebrated on August 12 every year calls for the involvement of young people in the effort to make the world a better place. The theme this year - Youth Civic Engagement - stresses that the political, economic and social engagement and participation of youth is essential to achieve sustainable human development, resilience and wellbeing.
Young people have active roles to play within all domains of social life, particularly: society, family, education, work/employment, and cyberspace. This year, we (WABA) wish to draw special attention to the issue of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). SRHR encompasses the right of all individuals to make decisions concerning their sexual activity and reproduction free from discrimination, coercion, and violence.
Want to know more? Read our statement here
Learn more about the UN #YouthDay campaign here
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September
WABA-UNICEF Stockholm Symposium
In collaboration with UNICEF, WABA is organising a symposium to galvanise wider and deeper commitment to protect, promote and support breastfeeding in the context of women’s work. In addition to support from the Breastfeeding Advocacy Team at UNICEF Headquarters, the symposium is also being supported with participation from the WHO, the ILO, a number of international NGOs and national government representatives.
The Symposium expects to examine the gap between maternity protection for working women and recommendations for optimal breastfeeding (for example, the ILO Convention 183 recommends 14 weeks of maternity leave whereas the WHO recommends six months of exclusive breastfeeding). Discussions will focus on contemporary challenges presented by more women than ever participating in the economy, and face the challenge of over 800 million women do not have the benefit of protection. The event should see a start to mark ‘A Century of Maternity Protection’ in 2019 harking back to the ILO Convention No.3 (1919) and call for 21st Century solutions to economics, gender equity and recognition of the full spectrum of ‘work’.
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