Twitter Chat – Protecting, Promoting & Supporting Breastfeeding In the Time of COVID-19

Please join us for a Twitter chat on Protecting, Promoting & Supporting Breastfeeding In the Time of COVID-19. Details below.

Overview:
Breastfeeding, especially during the first 6 months of life, provides numerous benefits to infants, mothers, and society. Breastmilk give babies the healthiest start to life, packed with antibodies, stem cells, and other unique properties, breastmilk acts as babies’ first vaccine. It builds their immunity, protecting them from infections, diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia, and lowers a child’s risk of developing obesity later in life. We also know breastfeeding has powerful health effects for mothers – it can reduce a woman’s risk of heart disease, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes, and depression.

As part of our continued effort to engage with the community on the infant, young child, and maternal needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are hosting a Twitter chat from the @1000Days account on the universal benefits of breastfeeding and why protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding, especially in the response and recovery to the COVID-19 pandemic, is critical for babies, moms, and communities around the world.

Host: @1000Days
When: Thursday, May 14 @ 9-10am EST
Primary Hashtag: #breastfeedingchat
Secondary Hashtags: #breastfeeding #COVID19
Important Reminders:

  • All tweets must include the #breastfeedingchat hashtag to be part of the Twitter chat stream.
  • Retweet questions that you are responding to, so your followers can follow the conversation even if they’re not following the chat.
  • Responses should include the question number you are referencing (A1, A2, etc.)

Promo for participating partners:

  • We’re excited to be participating in @1000day’s #breastfeedingchat on the benefits of and why we must protect, promote, and support #breastfeeding during the response & recovery to #COVID19. Join us!

Questions:

  • Q1: Let’s start with why breastfeeding is important – in what ways does breastfeeding support mothers? #breastfeedingchat
  • Q2: #Breastfeeding has the potential to save the lives of over 820,000 young children & 20,000 women each year if babies are breastfed early & exclusively for the first 6 months. How does exclusive breastfeeding encourage a baby’s development & survival? #breastfeedingchat
  • Q3: The benefits of #breastfeeding prove it’s critical to support mother’s in their breastfeeding journey and everyone can help. What can family members, friends, health care workers, and employers do to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding? #breastfeedingchat
  • Q4: #COVID19 is impacting access to #healthcare and on-going physical-distancing guidelines are suspending critical #breastfeeding counseling. What are short and long-term impacts to breastfeeding and child health when counseling and care is interrupted? #breastfeedingchat
  • Q5: Encouraging #breastfeeding also means creating environments that enable moms to breastfeed. How can we ensure women who choose to breastfeed are supported during #COVID19? What role do nurses, midwives & community healthcare workers play in this? #breastfeedingchat
  • Q6: Despite @WHO recs clarifying that mothers w/ suspected cases of #COVID19 who choose to breastfeed can if they take certain precautions, some hospitals are separating healthy moms & babies. What is at risk by separating mom & baby so early after birth? #breastfeedingchat
  • Q7: Evidence shows BMS companies and the wider food/bev industry are leveraging #COVID19 to influence families to purchase their products that undermine infant/child health. What role do donors & govts play in ensuring companies are adhering to the #BMSCode? #breastfeedingchat
  • Q8: For mothers who choose not to breastfeeding, the @WHO recommends donor human milk or wet nursing in contexts where allowed. If mothers don’t have access to these options, how can we ensure they can receive quality breastmilk substitutes? #breastfeedingchat