{"id":95955,"date":"2026-08-07T14:04:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/?p=95955"},"modified":"2026-08-07T14:04:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:04:45","slug":"world-breastfeeding-week-giving-every-child-the-best-possible-start-in-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/world-breastfeeding-week-giving-every-child-the-best-possible-start-in-life\/","title":{"rendered":"World Breastfeeding Week: Giving Every Child the Best Possible Start in Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Breastfeeding is much more than an act of care: it is one of the first and most powerful ways to ensure health, growth, and a better future.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the first six months of life, breast milk provides everything a baby needs and remains a vital source of nutrition beyond that, alongside appropriate complementary feeding. It protects against infections, supports healthy growth and cognitive development, and strengthens the bond between mother and child. At the same time, breastfeeding also contributes to mothers’ health and well-being<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But breastfeeding is not simply an individual choice<\/strong>. Every woman should be able to rely on trained health workers, accessible health services, and supportive communities throughout her breastfeeding journey. That is why protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding is a public health priority\u2014a shared responsibility that requires investment at every level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the vision that guides us. In every country where we work, we stand alongside mothers and their children during one of the most important and delicate moments of their lives together, strengthening <\/strong>maternal and child health services, training <\/strong>health workers, and working <\/strong>with institutions and communities to create an environment where breastfeeding can thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also the message behind World Breastfeeding Week 2026<\/strong>, celebrated under the theme “Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works”<\/strong>, which calls for greater investment in the policies, services, and support systems that enable every child to have the best possible start in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tanzania: A New Space to Support Mothers and Early Childhood Development<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To mark the closing of World Breastfeeding Week, together with the Ministry of Health of Tanzania<\/strong>, we inaugurated the new Breastfeeding & Early Childhood Development (ECD) Room<\/strong> at the Ministry’s headquarters in Dodoma. Established by CUAMM with the support of Zanetti funds, the facility provides mothers with a safe, private and welcoming space to breastfeed or express milk while promoting nurturing care and early childhood development. It represents a concrete step towards creating more breastfeeding-friendly environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angola: Strengthening Skills and Collaboration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In Angola, we supported the Provincial Department of Public Health in organising the World Breastfeeding Week celebrations, contributing to awareness activities and a technical round table where health professionals shared experiences and developed recommendations on exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding, maternal support, breastfeeding for mothers living with HIV or hepatitis B, Kangaroo Mother Care, and the future development of Baby-Friendly Hospitals and a human milk bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mozambique: Supporting Mothers Every Day<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In Beira, through the Protect Project<\/strong>, we highlighted the work of the Kuplumussana Association<\/strong> activists, who work every day in the Central Hospital and four health centres to support women through awareness and education activities on breastfeeding, Kangaroo Mother Care, and the care of premature newborns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From national institutions to hospitals and the most remote communities, our commitment remains the same: strengthening what works so that every mother receives the support she needs and every child has the best possible start in life.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From national institutions to grassroots communities, we remain committed to supporting mothers, protecting breastfeeding, and giving every child the best possible start in life.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":95956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1172],"tags":[2672,2939],"argomenti":[],"protagonisti":[],"luoghi":[2510,2523,2574],"class_list":["post-95955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-field-updates","tag-breastfeeding","tag-world-breastfeeding-week","luoghi-tanzania","luoghi-angola","luoghi-mozambico"],"acf":[],"featured_image_url":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hero-desktop-sito-25001280-1-150x150.png","medium":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hero-desktop-sito-25001280-1-300x154.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hero-desktop-sito-25001280-1-768x393.png","large":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hero-desktop-sito-25001280-1-1024x524.png","1536x1536":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hero-desktop-sito-25001280-1-1536x786.png","2048x2048":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hero-desktop-sito-25001280-1-2048x1049.png","trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hero-desktop-sito-25001280-1-18x9.png"},"post_author":"Flavia Fiacco","assigned_categories":"Field updates","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95957,"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95955\/revisions\/95957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95955"},{"taxonomy":"argomenti","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/argomenti?post=95955"},{"taxonomy":"protagonisti","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/protagonisti?post=95955"},{"taxonomy":"luoghi","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorswithafrica.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/luoghi?post=95955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}