Between 10-16 May, 2009 the Department of Health (DoH) celebrated National Breastfeeding Awareness Week promoting their main theme for this year as "Breastfeeding - every day makes a difference to your baby". The initiative focused on promoting the Breast Buddy Initiative and launching the new World Health Organization (WHO) Growth Charts.

The Breast Buddy Initiative

This week saw the DoH extending its Breast Buddy initiative launched last year which supports mothers to breastfeed for longer by encouraging them to nominate a buddy from within your circle of friends and family, who will provide you with support and practical advice.

Launching of the new UK WHO growth charts

During this week the new UK-World Health Organisation growth charts were introduced to England, providing accurate guidance on child growth. These charts, which have developed by the Royal College of Paediatrics on behalf of the DoH, will replace the current charts which were mainly based on growth of artificial formula fed infants. The new charts will reassure parents of breastfed babies as these charts are modelled on the normal growth of a breastfed baby, who is likely to gain weight more slowly. A significant feature of these charts is that they will help parents and healthcare professionals to identify children at risk of obesity at an earlier age.

To promote this special week and highlight the above initiatives together with the benefits of breastfeeding for mothers and babies staff from the Department of Child and family Health, Chelmsford and two third year student midwives, held an promotional stall in the Michael Ashcroft Foyer on 13 May 2009 between 12-2pm. The stall gave away DoH promotional material stating the National Breastfeeding Help line's number. These included: diary covers, fridge magnets, lanyards, bags, Breastfeeding DVDs and literature summarising the benefits of breastfeeding, all these materials vanished within an hour! The stall gave staff the opportunity to talk with all students about why breastfeeding is important and to promote the new growth charts.

The stall was approached by a student who was expecting her first baby and another present at the university with her baby. These students were able to have all their queries answered and collect helpful supporting information.

"It was great to see the interest in breastfeeding from the students and the opportunity to promote such an important week. Thank you to those students who got involved" Martina Donaghy Senior Midwifery Lecturer. Dept of Child and Family Health.