It’s World Breastfeeding Week!

Happy World Breastfeeding Week! If you’ve never heard of World Breastfeeding Week, it is held every year during the first week of August in over 120 countries to help raise awareness about breastfeeding and increase breastfeeding rates worldwide.

The theme this year is Talk to Me! Breastfeeding – A 3D Experience. According to the World Breastfeeding Week site:  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. 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.

I’m so thankful for all the great resources, support and encouragement out there about breastfeeding (Jeniffer mentioned several in her post last week here)! Online forums helped me through my oversupply and overactive letdown issues with my first child. Now, nursing my fourth child and struggling through dairy and soy sensitivities, I’ve found amazing support through Twitter and other social media.

To celebrate World Breastfeeding Week, there are lots of events going on across the country. Check out this page to see if there is an event going on near you!

And in honor of World Breastfeeding Week, here are 10 reasons why I LOVE breastfeeding:

1.  I love watching my babies grow, and get those nice, squeezable thighs, and knowing that it came from me. It gives me a deep appreciation of the amazing way my body was designed!

2. The milk drunk face. If you breastfeed, you know the one I mean Half asleep, eyes rolled back, milk dripping down their cheek, whole body relaxed, pure contentment written all over that little face.

3. It forces me to slow down and enjoy my baby. I appreciate this one more and more with each child. I can’t pass the baby off to someone else to feed so I can keep going at a breakneck pace. Every day, several times a day, it has to be about just the two of us. Even if I also have a two year old bouncing on me, or I’m typing a blog post on my computer, or reading a book, it still requires us to slow down and connect in a special way.

4. Saving money. This one isn’t as heartwarming as some of the other reasons, but I have to admit it is nice! When I think about the amount of money that I’ve saved so far by breastfeeding four children, I’m overwhelmed

5. Not having to get up in the middle of the night to fix bottles. I’m not good at functioning when I want to be sleeping, and I’ve cared for formula fed babies overnight before. Even doing it as simply as possible, with the formula already measured out into an easy dispenser, water in the bottle ready to go, it was still more work than rolling over and latching baby on while I go back to sleep!

6. It’s good for my baby. I love knowing that by doing something I love, I am reducing my baby’s risk of SIDS, asthma, obesity, diabetes and allergies, among other things.

7. It’s good for me. It’s nice to know that by breastfeeding I am lowering my risk of Type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer!

8. I’m setting an example for my daughters and sons that breastfeeding is normal, and that it is nothing to feel weird about or hide. My seven year old talks all the time about when she has babies, and how she is going to breastfeed them (and cloth diaper and homeschool!) Could that change when she gets older? Sure, but at least breastfeeding shouldn’t be something odd or foreign to her or any of my children.

9. Being able to help other moms and babies. My experiences breastfeeding four children, along with all the wonderful advice and support I’ve been given over the years, have helped me be able to help other moms to breastfeed their babies successfully!

10.And one of the things I love the most about breastfeeding? All the moments like this…

My 3rd born taking a momentary break from nursing to smile at me.

What do you love about breastfeeding? How are you celebrating World Breastfeeding Week?

Blessings,