This week (1-7 August) is World Breastfeeding Week – supported by WHO, UNICEF and many Ministries of Health and civil society partners, World Breastfeeding Week is held in the first week of August every year.
Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival and yet currently, fewer than half of infants under 6 months old are exclusively breastfed.
In 2018, a World Health Assembly resolution endorsed World Breastfeeding Week as an important health promotion strategy. With a different theme each year, it aims to promote the enabling environments that help women to breastfeed – including support in the community and the workplace, with adequate protections in government policies and laws – as well as sharing information on breastfeeding benefits and strategies.
This year’s theme is “Let’s Make Breastfeeding at Work, Work.”
Infant Feeding Midwife Jasmine tells us about her experience returning to work when still breastfeeding her baby:
“I returned to work when my little boy was around 10 months old in May 2022 following a lovely maternity leave. I was still breastfeeding around the clock and was worried about how this would work when working full time.
“Luckily, I was very well supported by my workplace and colleagues and was able to express at work when I needed to. For me, this was very important as I wanted my little boy to continue to receive breastmilk and all the vital and nutritional benefits when I could not be with him. The excellent support I received at work at the beginning meant that I could continue to breastfeed for another 14 months after my return and I am very grateful for that.”
Jasmine’s top tip for expressing at work is: Bring to work things that remind you of baby. I loved to look at photos and videos of my little boy. This helped me to relax and made expressing easier.
More information about breastfeeding and returning to work can be found here. It includes some useful tips and reassurance for a time that may be quite worrying for some parents.
