‘Closing the Gap: Breastfeeding Support for All’ - World Breastfeeding Week 2024

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year during the first week of August in over 120 countries. This year the theme is “Closing the Gap: Breastfeeding Support for All,” which underscores the vital role that families, communities and health care organizations play in empowering and supporting mothers, from all walks of life, in their breastfeeding journey. The primary aim of this year’s theme is to close the gap in those support systems, ensuring that every breastfeeding mother has access to the resources and assistance she needs.

Role of support systems

Partners, family members and friends are key to providing emotional and everyday assistance, making breastfeeding more manageable and positive.

Communities can remove obstacles to breastfeeding. For example, governments can display signs for private or semi-private spaces where staff, volunteers and families can express milk or breastfeed.

Health care organizations can provide information, guidance and encouragement to breastfeeding mothers. They can also implement policies that create an environment conducive to breastfeeding.

BCH's commitment to breastfeeding moms

At BCH, we support moms-to-be and new moms who want and are able to give their babies a healthy start in life through breastfeeding. Our Family Birth Center at Foothills Hospital is here to help breastfeeding mothers take advantage of all the benefits of breastfeeding by providing any needed education or services before their baby is born, while they’re in the hospital and after they go home.

• Lactation services: Our board-certified lactation consultants are available to help whenever breastfeeding issues arise. They’re available for consultations during a mother’s hospital stay and for in-person or virtual visits once they’re home.
• Baby-Friendly: BCH is Baby-Friendly, a designation sponsored by the World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and promoted by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). Our Baby-Friendly USA Certification means we’ve earned recognition for our efforts in giving babies a healthy start in life. The rigorous designation requires birth centers to have policies that enhance mother-baby bonding, offer optimal care for infant feeding and ensure a baby’s nutritional needs are adequately met, regardless of whether a mom chooses to breastfeed or formula-feed.
• Breastfeeding classes: Taken while pregnant, moms-to-be and their partners can prepare for and ask questions about breastfeeding before their newborn’s arrival. Classes cover many breastfeeding basics such as positioning, latching, reading your baby’s hunger signals and knowing when your baby is getting enough breast milk.
• Breastfeeding and infant feeding support group: Our very popular breastfeeding and infant feeding support weekly group provides mothers with an opportunity to ask a lactation consultant questions and connect with other mothers in an inclusive social atmosphere.

Call our Family Birth Center at 303-415-7230 for answers to any breastfeeding questions.
Our lactation consultants can answer many questions about breastfeeding, regardless of your baby's age. Phone consults are free.

For information about World Breastfeeding Week, visit worldbreastfeedingweek.org