Happy World Breastfeeding Week!

Happy World Breastfeeding Week, Mamas!

It has been a number of years, now,  since my youngest little nursling weaned, but I still treasure the comfort and health and closeness and smarts that breastfeeding brought to our family.  Both girls still remember nursing very fondly to this day, as well.

This year, the theme for World Breastfeeding Week is Understanding The Past, Planning The Future:  Celebrating Ten Years of WHO/UNICEF's Global Strategy For Infant And Young Child Feeding.

The Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding was jointly started by the World Health Organization and UNICEF in 2002,  It re-affirms the need to meet the targets set in the Innocenti Declaration in 1995, as well as the need to meet new targets.  The Global Strategy is a human rights strategy that prioritizes optimal feeding practices as a way to reduce malnutrition and poverty.  It calls on nations to set policies on infant and young child feeding practices.  It includes guidance on how to protect exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continued nursing for two years and beyond, while adding other, appropriate foods.