The theme of Breastfeeding Week 2023 is “Let's make breastfeeding and work work”.
World Breastfeeding Week is held in the first week of August every year, supported by WHO, UNICEF and many Ministries of Health and civil society partners. This year’s theme will focus on breastfeeding and work, providing a strategic opportunity to advocate for essential maternity rights that support breastfeeding – maternity leave for a minimum of 18 weeks, ideally more than 6 months, and workplace accommodations after this point. These are urgent issues for ensuring women can breastfeed as long as they wish to do so: more than half a billion working women are not given basic maternity provisions; many more find themselves unsupported when they go back to work.
Women shouldn’t have to choose between breastfeeding their children and their jobs. Breastfeeding support is possible regardless of workplace, sector, or contract type.
Only 20% of countries require employers to provide female employees with paid breaks and facilities to breastfeed or express milk.
Less than half of infants under 6 months of age are exclusively breastfed. It is very important to work collectively so that work is not a reason why boys and girls do not receive exclusive breastfeeding.
WHO will use the week to champion best practices for workplace-related breastfeeding support, in different countries, across different contract types and sectors, and promote actions that can be taken to help ensure breastfeeding works for all women who work, wherever they work.
