Context: World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is being observed from 1st to 7th August 2019.

The focus this year is on protection, promotion, and support of breastfeeding.

The objectives of World Breastfeeding Week are:

1. To create awareness among the parents about breastfeeding.
2. Encourage parents to adopt breastfeeding.
3. Creating awareness about the importance of initiation and exclusive breastfeeding, and adequate and appropriate complementary feeding.
4. Providing advocacy material about the importance of breastfeeding. 

Breastfeeding is important because:

• It promotes better health for mothers and children alike.
• It prevents infections like diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections in early infancy and thus reduce infant mortality.
• It decreases the risk of mothers developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
• It protects infants from obesity-related illnesses, diabetes and increases the IQ.

The correct norms of infant and young child feeding are:

1. Initiation of Breastfeeding within an hour of birth.
2. Exclusive breastfeeding for first six months of life i.e. only breast Milk ‘NO’ other milk, food, drink or water.
3. Appropriate and adequate complementary feeding from six months of age while continuing breastfeeding.
4. Continued breastfeeding up to the age of two years or beyond.

World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA):

Annually, WABA coordinates and organises the World Breastfeeding Week (WBW).

World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) is a global network of individuals and organisations dedicated to the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding worldwide based on the Innocenti Declarations, the Ten Links for Nurturing the Future and the WHO/UNICEF Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding. WABA is in consultative status with UNICEF and an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC).