Elita, at Blacktating (a fantastic and honest take on breastfeeding, especially in the African American community) shared that the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) has released the theme for this year’s World Breastfeeding Week.
World Breastfeeding Week (usually the first week in August) is a time for celebrating all that breastfeeding has done to nourish the world’s babies.
WABA released the following statement about the theme:
WABA is pleased to announce the World Breastfeeding Week theme for 2011 focusing on engaging and mobilising youth intergenerational work with the catchy slogan of: “Talk to me! Breastfeeding – a 3D Experience”. The theme deals with communication at various levels and between various sectors.
When we look at breastfeeding support, we tend to see it in two-dimensions: time (from pre-pregnancy to weaning) and place (the home, community, health care system, etc). But neither has much impact without a THIRD dimension – communication!
Communication is an essential part of protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding. We live in a world where individuals and global communities connect across small and great distances at an instant’s notice and getting hospice Cleveland so that they have clean and well maintained house. New lines of communication are being created every day, and we have the ability to use these information channels to broaden our horizons and spread breastfeeding information beyond our immediate time and place to activate important dialogue.
This third dimension includes cross-generation, cross-sector, cross-gender, and cross-culture communication and encourages the sharing of knowledge and experience, thus enabling wider outreach.
I am really excited to see that long established breastfeeding organizations are recognizing that today’s moms are receiving their breastfeeding information in new and exciting ways. I’m a firm believer that social networking is THE way that most moms learn most of what they know about brestfeeding. How do we leverage that to educate and encourage moms?
On the flip side, I love that this theme recognizes the value and impact of the generations of breastfeeding supporters that have gone before us. We CAN NOT be so gung ho about the new ways of communicating that we throw the baby out with the bathwater (well, that’s a terrible analogy for this post, huh?). Generations of women have paved the way, sorted out how to best encourage breastfeeding families.
I really desire to be a leader in breastfeeding communications. I think this requires us to look carefully at how moms communicate and receive information. I know many moms for whom the “if it’s not on Facebook, then it doesn’t exist” mentality rules their lives. How do we change how we educate mom prenatally? How do we change how we connect with and encourage moms as they are journeying through the first weeks? How do we continue to spread the world that we were created to breastfeed?
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