World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is August 1st - 7th and celebrates the signing of the Innocenti Declaration, produced and adopted in 1990 by participants at the WHO/UNICEF meeting on "Breastfeeding in the 1990s: A Global Initiative on the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding." The document lists the benefits of breastfeeding, plus global and governmental goals. World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated in 120 countries on various dates.

OBJECTIVES OF WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK CELEBRATIONS 2013

1. To draw attention to the importance of Peer Support in helping mothers to establish and sustain breastfeeding.
2. To inform people of the highly effective benefits of Peer Counselling, and unite efforts to expand peer counselling programmes.
3. To encourage breastfeeding supporters, regardless of their educat ional background, to step forward and be trained to support mothers and babies.
4. To identify local community support contacts for breastfeeding mothers, that women can go to for help and support after giving birth.
5. To call on governments and maternity facilities globally to actively implement the Ten Steps, in particular Step 10, to improve duration and rates of exclusive breastfeeding.

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