International Lactation Celebration Week 2022
It’s (nearly) International Lactation Celebration Week (LCW)! Some people call it World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) but I prefer it my way. Not only is it inclusive, it’s more fun to say.
This week, August 1-7, people around the world are celebrating lactating parents and their babies.
Why is LCW even necessary? It will always be necessary because formula companies will continue to spend billions of dollars in marketing each year to show us that formula is just as good as human milk. The US government does not spend billions of dollars educating our citizens on why human milk is optimal for human babies. Until we have universal paid parental leave, FREE lactation support, and IBCLC access for EVERY person who needs it, we will continue to need National Lactation Month and LCW.
For the past few LCWs, I’ve been creating graphics and throwing out lactation facts to celebrate and promote lactation. This year I chose to go with the theme chosen by the organizers of LCW.
The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) started LCW/WBW in 1992. In 2016 they began linking the theme to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. So, not only does the LCW theme protect and promote lactation, it also protects our environment.
The theme for this year: Step Up for Breastfeeding.
It’s very important that every culture and society around the world steps up to support lactating families in order to give babies optimal nutrition and to build their immune systems (which isn’t fully developed until age 5!).
The theme focuses on strengthening the capacity of our society to protect and promote giving our babies human milk. Different groups of people make up a warm chain of support for lactating families.
I chose 7 members of the warm chain to highlight this week. If you’d like a complete list of warm chain participants, check out the WBW website.
Follow along this week as I discuss how each group can take steps to protect, promote, and support chest feeding.
The information in this week's graphics are adapted from WABA’s campaign cards with some additions and changes to language for inclusivity.
Check out my IG to see the easier to digest version of this post. Please share and give credit accordingly! Cheers to supporting lactation!
Happy Latching!