Breastfeeding Awareness Week takes place between 19 - 26 June 2011. But there's a snag. The Government has cut all funding for this initiative. Read about it here. You add this to the cuts to SureStart centres where many mums get breastfeeding advice and support, and you have to wonder where mums will turn to for support.
The Government says that "support and information is currently available to health professionals and parents via NHS Choices, the National Breastfeeding Helpline, UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative and the peer support programmes."
But is that enough? We don't think so and want to help.
So here's what you can do:
1. Sign the petition run by the Lactivist to encourage the Government to bring this initiative back.
2. Join the Bring Back Breastfeeding Awareness group on Facebook.
3. If you're a blogger, please write a blog post about breastfeeding and send it to us by 17 June (send all entries to melissa@peekaboocoms.co.uk). We will host a blog carnival on this blog featuring all the posts. They can be about your experiences with breastfeeding, some tips or advice, your own thoughts on the government cuts, or suggestions for mums wanting to breastfeed about where they can get help from. Whatever you like - as long as it is about breastfeeding.
4. Throughout June, we will be posting articles on our blog giving information, tips and advice about breastfeeding. So if you're a breastfeeding mum or plan on breastfeeding, please pop by and take a look.
5. If you're a blogger and would like to run a competition on your blog to raise awareness of Breastfeeding Awareness Week and need a prize, we have a limited number of nursing bras we can give away as prizes. Please contact us on the email address given above to make arrangements.
6. If you are holding any kind of breastfeeding awareness event, please let us know about it either by emailing us or posting a comment below. We will tweet about it, mention it on this blog and put it up on our Facebook page. So please let us know what what you're doing.
Join us in keeping Breastfeeding Awareness Week alive!
Hi, please mention our event: we have 200+ women breastfeeding their babies flashmob style on Friday 24th June in Central London. Full details here: http://partmummypartme.blogspot.com/2011/06/boobies-for-babies.html
ReplyDeletePage 3 favourite Melinda Messenger is supporting our campaign to show people that it's both legal and normal to feed your baby in public (whatever their age).
Please join our event and help us make history!