World Breast Feeding Week

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from 1 to 7 August to encourage breastfeeding and to improve the health of babies around the world. It commemorates the Innocenti Declaration signed in August 1990 by government policymakers, WHO, UNICEF and other organizations to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.

World Breastfeeding Week aims to highlight the huge benefits that breastfeeding can bring to both, the health and welfare of babies, as well as a wider push for maternal health.

Breastfeeding is the best way to provide infants with the nutrients they need. WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding starting within one hour after birth until a baby is 6 months old. Nutritious complementary foods should then be added while continuing to breastfeed for up to 2 years or beyond.

Department of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics, Sir Vithaldas Thackersey College of Home Science (Empowered Autonomous Status), offers courses like ‘Maternal and Child Nutrition’ and ‘Public Health Nutrition’ as the Discipline Specific Elective Courses which focus on promotion of correct breast feeding practices for the benefit of the Mother and the Child. The department, in collaboration with the Department of Human Development, plans to organise an event to celebrate the World Breastfeeding Week in the first week of August 2020, with the objective to sensitize the students towards the importance of Breast Feeding.

The event will include Display of Posters made by the students on various aspects related to importance, promotion and right practice of breast feeding. Experts from the field of Maternal and Child Nutrition, Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI) will be invited to create awareness among students about the importance of Breast Feeding