Each year the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) chooses a theme for this week. This year it is “Sustaining Breastfeeding Together”. This theme is designed to dovetail with the 17 WHO/UN Sustainable Development Goals (these SDGs took over from the Millenium Development Goals).
In our own way here at Sydney Mother and Baby we Sustain Breastfeeding Together – due to the generosity of Dr Morris in providing lactation support to all his patients. I am sure we would have the highest breastfeeding rates of any practice in Australia.
There are four specific areas:
- Nutrition, Food Security and Poverty Reduction.
- Survival, Health and Wellbeing
- Environment and Climate Change
- Women’s Productivity and Employment
Some facts:
- Undernutrition, including sub optimal breastfeeding, underlies 45% of all deaths of children under five annually.
- Not breastfeeding is associated with economic losses of about $302US annually or 0.49% of the global gross national income
- Every additional month of paid maternity leave decreases infant mortality rates by 13%
- Only 53% of countries meet the ILO 14 week minimum standard for maternity leave.
- It is estimated that more than 4000 litres of water are needed to produce 1kg of formula.
