Month: May 2018

We are proud to announce the Global Breastfeeding Webinar Series, where 1,000 Days and Upswell experts will offer free training to breastfeeding advocates around the world on how to utilize social media to promote, protect and support breastfeeding in the lead up to World Breastfeeding Week and National Breastfeeding Month (U.S.) in August.

Save your spot for this important series: https://bit.ly/2IWxMoz

*Aside from an opportunity to collaborate with your peers, participation in this series includes social media advertising credits.

WEBINAR DETAILS

Webinar 1 | The Potential of Social Media for Advocacy
June 21 at 9:00 EDT / 14:00 CET

The right tactics on Facebook can shatter stigma, spread lifesaving information, and more. On this webinar, we will explore real-world results from nonprofits around the globe. By the end of it you will have a sense of the giant opportunity to make World Breastfeeding Week and National Breastfeeding Month 2018 an unprecedented success.

Webinar 2 | Content Strategy & Audience Engagement on Facebook
June 28 at 9:00 EDT / 14:00 CET

Using lessons learned directly from organizations around the globe, this session will help you uncover strategies and tactics to engage more people on Facebook. We will also take an in-depth look at the qualities of the audience proven to spread credible messages about the benefits of breastfeeding.

Webinar 3 | Storytelling Part 1: By the Numbers
July 12 at 9:00 EDT / 14:00 CET

Compelling numbers are an important part of advocating for greater breastfeeding support – but only with the right packaging. By the end of this webinar, you will be able to use the powerful statistics about breastfeeding to make a convincing argument on social media.

Webinar 4 | Storytelling Part 2: By the People
July 19 at 9:00 EDT / 14:00 CET

Data moves minds, but stories move hearts. Storytelling has the power to make the world a healthier and more just place. This final webinar will show you how to tie everything together by collecting and sharing stories on social media

Webinar 5 | 2018 World Breastfeeding Week Kickoff
July 26 at 9:00 EDT / 14:00 CET

Let’s put everything that we learned together and into action this World Breastfeeding Week and National Breastfeeding Month. During this webinar, we will share tools- including a social media guide- to truly pump-up the volume on breastfeeding this World Breastfeeding Week and National Breastfeeding Month.

Please note: If you are a program manager, advocate or communicator who understands the need to boost the quantity and quality of content on breastfeeding, this webinar series is for you. Sign up for the Global Breastfeeding Webinar Series below.

DON’T FORGET TO REGISTER: https://bit.ly/2IWxMoz

Ensuring the health and potential of a child starts in pregnancy and continues throughout life. In fact, a child’s brain and body grow more rapidly in the 1,000-day window between pregnancy and age two than at any other point in human development. To take advantage of that window of opportunity, various “nurturing care” supports including good health, adequate nutrition, responsive caregiving, safety and security, and early learning opportunities are needed.

Recognizing these key components of child development, the Nurturing Care Framework is being launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF at this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA). This framework builds off the evidence in the Lancet series on Advancing Early Childhood Development (ECD) and calls for integrated action for ECD. It brings together stakeholders from across sectors to put forth a roadmap for policies and programs that promote healthy, thriving children.

Nutrition for the win
As a pillar of the Nurturing Care Framework, good nutrition is essential to early childhood development. It is the fuel that children need to survive and thrive. When combined with other ECD interventions like good health and responsive care, the effect is even greater. Luckily, there is a single nutrition intervention that provides adequate nutrition, good health and responsive care, all wrapped into one: breastfeeding.

Breastmilk: the ultimate superfood
Breastmilk is the most nutritionally and immunologically potent food for infants – and the health and brain-boosting benefits of breastfeeding extend into toddlerhood. Breastmilk fuels brain development, protects against disease and illness and sets a child upon a path toward better health and a more prosperous future.

In fact, breastfeeding has the single largest potential impact on child survival of any preventive intervention. As a baby’s first vaccine, breastmilk boosts the child’s immune system and has an enormous impact on preventing diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia. Breastfeeding also reduces the risk of non-communicable diseases and decreases the prevalence of overweight, obesity and diabetes later in life.

Breastfeeding involves a great deal of mother-child interaction and nurturing, providing an opportunity for responsive care. Babies’ brains are shaped not only by the quality of the nutrition they get, but also by the quality of the experiences and interactions they have with caregivers. The physical act of breastfeeding strengthens a baby’s sensory and emotional circuitry, critical for cognitive and socio-emotional development.

It’s clear that in many ways, breastfeeding helps level the playing field to give every child a fair start in life, enabling millions of young children to thrive and reach their full potential. Improving breastfeeding rates can have an enormous impact on a nation’s economy by increasing productivity, cutting health care costs and saving lives.

Policymakers must step up
The benefits are clear and yet women in every corner of the world face too many barriers to start and continue breastfeeding successfully. Recent analysis by the Global Breastfeeding Collective, led by WHO and UNICEF, shows that no country is adequately supporting moms to breastfeed.

Policymakers interested in improving early childhood development outcomes and enacting the Nurturing Care Framework should invest in breastfeeding as an invaluable first step.

The investment for breastfeeding is relatively low-cost but high-impact. For only $4.70 per newborn, policymakers can finance:

• improved access to skilled breastfeeding counseling
• better practices in maternity facilities
• national breastfeeding education efforts
• development of paid family leave policies
• implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes to restrict the unethical promotion of infant and toddler formula.

Setting the foundation for development
When we don’t nourish a child’s potential in the first 1,000 days, we all feel the consequences. Many of the issues with which policymakers’ struggle—from educational achievement gaps, to higher healthcare costs, to deepening disparities—have their roots in how well a child fares during the first years of life.

World leaders should not pass up the opportunity to support breastfeeding and nutrition as part of their agenda on early childhood development and in their efforts to build a more equitable and healthy world.

1,000 Days joined other civil society organizations in calling for a global framework for nurturing care to include health diets. Read the full statement here.

This week the White House proposed to cut $7 billion from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This directly contradicts a bipartisan bill passed by Congress and signed into law by the President just a few months ago that extended funding for CHIP. This abrupt about-face threatens the health insurance coverage for the more than 9 million children and roughly 370,000 pregnant women across the country who rely on CHIP.

The proposed cuts to CHIP will threaten states’ ability to maintain their CHIP program and fundamentally undercuts the carefully constructed bipartisan agreement from earlier this year. Specifically, the President’s proposed cuts would come from the funds set aside to ensure stability for CHIP, including funds that help states cover unexpected enrollment in the program, such as after a natural disaster or an economic downturn. The White House proposal is disconnected from the realities facing America’s families and puts children’s health coverage at risk.

1,000 Days strongly opposes the White House rescission package. America’s families already spent far too many months wondering and worrying if CHIP would be there for their children’s health care needs. Congress and the White House ultimately came through and put in place a strong funding package to make sure CHIP could meet families’ needs. We cannot go backwards.  Congress must make the health and well-being of young children and their families a priority. To do this, it must reject the rescission package proposed by the White House and maintain the current, bipartisan funding for CHIP.

May is Miracle Milk Month, and we are standing alongside Best for Babes, KellyMom, ROSE, La Leche League USA, United States Breastfeeding Committee, and many other amazing partners to surround new parents with supportive messages and information about infant feeding.

Human milk saves lives in the NICU and every day. Yet, millions of parents are still being undermined by the Breastfeeding Booby Traps®: prevented from achieving their breastfeeding goals, from accessing donor milk if needed, from obtaining non-industry sponsored, evidence-based information on alternative feeding methods, and from getting the non-judgmental acceptance and support they deserve from health professionals, family, friends, and society.

It is imperative that parents get the support and information they need to do what’s best for their babies. We’ve heard from many parents in our community about just how vital and miraculous this support can be.

“My first was born at 32 weeks because we had preeclampsia. I was heartbroken; I felt like my body had failed us. During her NICU stay, I felt so helpless, so angry, and so frustrated that I couldn’t give her what she needed to grow strong and healthy to term. Everything had gone wrong. But just a couple hours after she was born a lactation consultant came to see us to show me how to pump. She was so encouraging and was so impressed with the amount of colostrum I had expressed! Something had gone right, and that something was producing milk. She received just the smallest bit of donor milk, and from then on had my breastmilk for the duration of her hospital stay. Once we got home we worked so hard with a lactation consultant to get her to latch directly to breast. It took so much time, and energy, and tears, and support. It was on her due date that she finally did it! It was such a blessing to be able to nurse her directly. She grew and thrived and is now a 2-year old and the best big sister. I am so proud of her, and so thankful that breastfeeding helped me trust my body again.” – Lauren D

Help us to better support more parents, like Lauren , by joining the Miracle Milk Month Campaign. Together, we can end the Breastfeeding Booby Traps ® by delivering essential, positive, encouraging, evidence-based information into the hands of as many new parents, providers, hospitals and the public as possible!

Raise your voice and celebrate with us for the love of moms and babies!

Please share this with your friends and family and help us continue to raise our voices for moms and babies everywhere!