🌍 World Breastfeeding Week 2025: Let’s Back Mothers So Babies Can Thrive

🍼 Why Breastfeeding Matters

Breastfeeding is one of the most powerful tools we have to help children grow up healthy and strong. It’s packed with nutrients, strengthens babies’ immune systems, and even lowers the risk of obesity and disease later in life.

If every child was breastfed optimally, we could save nearly 600,000 lives every year. That’s not just a health win, it’s a human rights win.

📉 The Global Gap: We’re Falling Behind

Right now, only 48% of babies under 6 months are exclusively breastfed, far below the global target of 60% by 2030. And with development assistance dropping and health systems under pressure, progress is slipping.

Mothers want to breastfeed, but they’re not getting the support they need. That’s the real problem.

🧱 What’s Getting in the Way?

There are major system failures stopping mothers from successfully breastfeeding:

• Only 10% of countries meet ILO standards for paid maternity leave
• Only 19% train healthcare workers in breastfeeding support before they enter the workforce
• Only 4% of countries receive enough funding to meet basic programme needs

These gaps mean many mothers are left to figure it out alone, and that’s not okay.

🌱 What Real Support Looks Like

To make breastfeeding work, we need to make support unmissable:

• Health workers trained to provide reliable, empathetic guidance
• Workplaces with protected time and space to breastfeed or pump
• Community programmes that continue care after birth
• Governments protecting mothers from harmful formula marketing

When all of this is in place, no mother falls through the cracks.

🚨 The Urgency: We Can’t Lose Momentum

Since 2017, 23 countries have increased breastfeeding rates by over 10%. But with donor funding declining and maternity protections still weak, this momentum is at risk.

We can't afford to wait. Every delay means more children miss out on the lifelong benefits of breastfeeding.

📢 Final Call: Let’s Turn Up the Volume

UNICEF and WHO recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months, and continued breastfeeding alongside nutritious foods up to two years or longer. But mothers can’t do it alone.

This World Breastfeeding Week, let’s raise our voices, demand better support systems, and protect the progress we’ve made.

✅ Be part of the change.
Text JOIN to 📲 Join the movement text JOIN to +27 83 283 8313 on Whatsapp. and become a U-Reporter today.
Your voice can help build a world where every mother gets the support she deserves.