It’s August, National Immunization Awareness Month, and the first week of August is the World Breastfeeding Week! People all over the world – from Tennessee to Singapore – are taking action to raise awareness and promote the powerful importance of breastfeeding.

Here’s a roundup of some compelling information on the call for Breastfeeding Awareness:

• Red Wine and Applesauce covers Breastfeeding and Immunizations: Yay for Breastfeeding and Immunizations! Tara Haelle raises awareness of the importance of breastfeeding and immunizations and the benefits of both.
• Celebrating the Very Ordinary – Chrissy Chittenden of The Huffington Post asks why something so ordinary and natural as breastfeeding has become taboo in the eyes of the public.
• Looking Beyond 2015: Ellen Piwoz, writing for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, presents the gains and challenges in promoting immediate and continued breastfeeding around the world. She calls for an indicator to increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding from birth to six months to 60% by the year 2030, urging the goal to be included in the Sustainable Development Goals for the UN General Assembly.
• Most under two-year Tanzanian children suffer from malnutrition: Mothers of in Tanzania are reminded that exclusive breastfeeding for their infant from birth to six months is the best nutritional option their babies. Breastfeeding assures 100% food security for Tanzanian mothers, and improving exclusive breastfeeding rates could potentially reduce the mortality rate of children under five years old by up to 13 percent.
• I fed my newborns formula to keep them alive. Still, I felt guilty about it. via the Washington Post‘s Darlena Cunha – A heartbreaking essay by a woman who fed her newborn premies formula and her experience of shame and judgement from the public.
• The Millennium Development Goals: What’s Breastfeeding Got to do with it? – 1000 Days considers how promotion of breastfeeding alleviates global poverty and interacts with the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

Image from the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

Nursing is something we share with every mammal – it is a normal, natural thing to do.. everywhere! Breastfeeding Awareness Week is a perfect time to demonstrate the importance and benefits of breastfeeding! From the words of Tara Haelle:

Exclusively breastfeeding offers wonderful health benefits and should be encouraged as the default norm. Yet World Breastfeeding Week is actually a good time to also remind folks that as long as a baby is well fed, a mother’s choice should be respected in how she feeds her child, and no mother should be made to feel guilty or ashamed if she is feeding her child some or all formula.