This Inspiration Guide is a living document, providing an open-source, unbranded library of content for a community of organizations working to utilize social media to promote, protect and support breastfeeding for World Breastfeeding Week (August 1 – 7), National Breastfeeding Month (U.S. - August) and beyond.
For additional information, visit:
WABA World Breastfeeding Week - Empower Parents, Enable Breastfeeding
USBC National Breastfeeding Month - Support Changes Everything
How to Use the Inspiration Guide
The messaging included within this inspiration guide is meant to be used throughout the month of August, across social platforms along with the proposed graphics and/or other general breastfeeding imagery. Additionally, each graphic within this guide is downloadable. In order to save, right click and select Save As.
We've included both general breastfeeding content as well as messaging geared towards specific topics, depending on the weekly schedule. We encourage you to use content related to each week's theme as you plan your content.
Key Messaging
Hashtags
- Always use: #breastfeeding
- Whenever possible, please use: #WBW2019 and/or #NBM19
Key Stats / Facts on Breastfeeding & General Messaging
- Over 820,000 children and 20,000 women could be saved each year if babies were breastfed according to global recommendations.
- In a world filled with inequality, crises and poverty, #breastfeeding is the foundation of lifelong health for babies and mothers.
- #Breastfeeding is a universal solution that gives everyone a fair start in life and lays the foundation for women and children to survive AND thrive.
- #Breastfeeding is an equalizer that can help break the cycle of poverty.
- #Breastfeeding prevents hunger and malnutrition in all its forms.
- For women, #breastfeeding can help with lowering the risk of heart disease, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
- For children, #breastfeeding combats infectious diseases, decreases diarrhea, lowers respiratory infections, prevents dental cavities and increases IQ.
- Whether #breastfeeding or not, moms deserve FACTS when it comes to feeding their little ones, not bogus health claims and aggressive marketing tactics. It’s time for the makers of infant formula to market their products ethically.
- What stands in the way of ensuring that at least HALF of the 🌎’s babies are exclusively breastfed by 2025? Women need more support to reach their #breastfeeding goals.
- ALL women deserve support to reach their #breastfeeding goals.
Key Graphics
Key Links/Resources
- Global Breastfeeding Collective
- Investment Case for Breastfeeding
- World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action’s Official World Breastfeeding Week Toolkit
- 1,000 Days Update - Guest Post: What Would it Look Like if We Protected Rather Than Just Promoted Breastfeeding?
Schedule
Week 1: World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7) – Empower Parents, Enable Breastfeeding
Week 2: Investing in our Future
Week 3: Workplace and Work Life
Week 4: Black Breastfeeding Week – The World is Yours: Imagine. Innovate. Liberate
Empower Parents, Enable Breastfeeding
(World Breastfeeding Week Theme)
Use the below social copy and graphics to highlight ways to empower parents and enable breastfeeding - with a focus on paid leave. We recommend using this as general content for World Breastfeeding Week and throughout August for National Breastfeeding Month.
Messaging
- No parent should have to choose between providing for their family economically or offering the best nourishment for their baby through #breastfeeding.
- Access to paid leave helps provide women with the time they need to establish and continue #breastfeeding, benefiting the health of both mom and baby.
- No one breastfeeds alone. It takes support from everyone – from parents to policymakers, health facilities, communities and employers. We all have a role to play in supporting #breastfeeding.
- A mother is more than 2X as likely to stop #breastfeeding in the month she returns to work compared to a mother who has not yet returned to work.
- Paid leave supports mothers to breastfeed, breastfeed longer, and reap the important health benefits of #breastfeeding.
- #Breastfeeding—with its powerful health benefits for both mom and baby—relies on women having enough time, energy and capacity.
- Paid leave can lead to longer durations of #breastfeeding, which can have powerful and lasting effects on children’s brain development.
Graphics
Additional Resources
- 1 in 4 Women: Lack of Access to Paid Family Leave is a Public Health Crisis
- Global Breastfeeding Collective: Breastfeeding Advocacy Toolkit – Enacting Paid Family Leave and Workplace Breastfeeding Policies
Investing in our Future
(Week 2 National Breastfeeding Month theme)
Use the below social copy and graphics to highlight the investment case for breastfeeding. We recommend using this as general content for Week 2 of National Breastfeeding Month and throughout August for National Breastfeeding Month.
Messaging
- Every $1 invested in breastfeeding support generates $35 in benefits to economies. Investing in breastfeeding is one of the smartest investments a country can make to ensure a smarter, healthier population.
- An investment of just $4.70 per newborn will ensure 50% of world’s babies are exclusively breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life.
- Not breastfeeding is associated with economic losses of about $302 BILLION annually – or 0.49% of world gross national income.
- From paid family leave to adequate accommodations for pumping breast milk, workplace support is vital to increasing global #breastfeeding rates.
- What is one of the best investments in saving lives and improving the health, social and economic development of individuals and nations? #Breastfeeding!
Graphics
Additional Resources
- Breastfeeding Infographic
- More breastfeeding could save the world $1 billion every day
- Investment Case for Breastfeeding
Workplace and Work Life
(Week 3 National Breastfeeding Month theme)
Use the below social copy and graphics to highlight the importance of workplace and work life supports for breastfeeding. We recommend using this as general content for Week 3 of National Breastfeeding Month and throughout August for National Breastfeeding Month.
Messages
- Everyone can benefit from support when #breastfeeding. It takes support from all around – from parents to policymakers, health facilities, communities and employers. We all have a role to play.
- From paid family leave to adequate accommodations for pumping breast milk, workplace support is vital to increasing global #breastfeeding rates.
- When a #breastfeeding mother returns to work, her ability to continue breastfeeding depends on having things like breastfeeding/pumping breaks and a safe, private, clean space for expressing and storing breastmilk.
- We need flexible workplace policies that enable #breastfeeding.
Graphics
Additional Resources
- Global Breastfeeding Collective: Breastfeeding Advocacy Toolkit – Enacting Paid Family Leave and Workplace Breastfeeding Policies
- WHO Breastfeeding Infographics:
- "Let's Make it Work: What law makers can do"
- "Let's Make it Work: What employers can do"
- "Let's Make it Work: What trade unions can do"
- "Let's Make it Work: What co-workers can do"
Black Breastfeeding Week
(Theme - The World is Yours: Imagine. Innovate. Liberate.)
*Materials to come. Check out https://www.facebook.com/BlackBreastfeedingWeek/ and http://blackbreastfeedingweek.org/ for updates.