Breastfeeding Awareness and Resources
In August and September, we celebrate breastfeeding and chestfeeding: World Breastfeeding Week, Indigenous Milk Medicine Week, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Breastfeeding Week, Black Breastfeeding Week, Workplace Lactation Week, and Semana de la Lactancia Latina and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Breastfeeding Week.
Breastfeeding and
chestfeeding offers optimal infant nutrition, while providing long-term health benefits to parents and children. Substantial clinical research has demonstrated that breastfeeding and chestfeeding reduce incidences of infectious diseases, risk of obesity in adult life, eczema, Type 2 diabetes, childhood leukemia, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Parents who have breastfed or chestfed also have decreased rates of cancers, Type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure.