Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The eighth annual World Breast-feeding Week will be celebrated Aug. 1-7 with the theme, "Breast-feeding: The Best Investment" by La Leche League International and the World Alliance for Breast-feeding Action.
World Breast-feeding Week is part of WABA's ongoing campaign to increase public awareness of the importance of breast-feeding. La Leche League is a founding member of WABA's global alliance of health care providers, non-governmental organizations and mother support groups.
Aug. 1 marks the eighth anniversary of the signing of the Innocenti Declaration on the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breast-feeding, which was adopted in 1990 by 32 governments and 10 United Nations agencies. The Innocenti Declaration recognizes the importance of breast-feeding to infant and maternal health, as well as the social, economic and ecological benefits it provides to the family and society.
The Declaration states:
"As a global goal for optimal maternal and child health and nutrition, all women should be enabled to practice exclusive breast-feeding and all infants should be fed exclusively on breast milk from birth to four to six months of age. Thereafter, children should continue to breastfeed while receiving appropriate and adequate complementary foods for up to two years of age or beyond. This child feeding is to be achieved by creating an appropriate environment of awareness and support so that women can benefit in this manner."
La Leche League International is a nonprofit organization that provides breast-feeding information and encouragement through mother-to-mother support groups and interaction with parents, physicians, researchers and health care providers.
Local group meetings are hosted at 10 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month at the North Manchester Public Library, with the next scheduled meeting Aug. 8.
