Celebrating World Breastfeeding Week 2023

World Breastfeeding Week is an annual celebration that is held from the first to the seventh of August in more than one hundred and twenty countries, including Belize.  It was first celebrated in 1992 by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action and is now observed by UNICEF and the World Health Organization. The aim is to promote exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life which yields many health benefits, providing critical nutrients, as well as protection from deadly diseases such as pneumonia. Yvette Massiah is a certified lactation counselor.

Yvette Massiah, Certified Lactation Counselor

Yvette Massiah

“The theme for this week breastfeeding awareness is enabling breastfeeding, helping mothers to breastfeed in the workplace, enabling them to breastfeed in the workplace.  So we are especially asking businesses today to please provide a small room, as space for our mothers who come back from maternity leave so that they can continue to breastfeed.  We teach breastfeeding exclusively for six months, meaning that you will give that baby nothing else within that six months but breastfeeding.  And then at six months, we start to bring in food from the family pot, along with continuing to breastfeed.  So in [order] to have these mothers successfully do exclusive breastfeeding, we need the workplace to join in on breastfeeding and enable and have a space for these mothers to continue to breastfeed.”

Robyn Daly-Faber

Robyn Daly-Faber, Nutritionist, MoHW

“During breastfeeding, a woman’s nutritional intake is important.  She actually has a need for additional food, additional calories.  So we encourage women who are breastfeeding to make sure that they east a balanced meal, we are looking at healthy options, so they have to have food from all the food groups, of course healthy options, avoiding sugar, extra sugar, extra fat, extra salt and the additional calories.  So they need to have their three meals, it’s similar to when they are in pregnancy, but just additional and making sure that they are on their pre-natals.”