This Inspiration Guide is a living document, providing an open-source, unbranded library of content for a community of organizations working to utilize social media to promote, protect and support breastfeeding during World Breastfeeding Week (August 1 – 7), National Breastfeeding Month (August), Black Breastfeeding Week (August 25-31) and beyond.
Continue the conversation with us in the Global Breastfeeding Organizations Facebook Group.
For additional information, visit http://worldbreastfeedingweek.org/.
Key Messaging: Hashtags
- Always use: #breastfeeding
- Whenever possible, please use: #wbw2018
Key Messaging: Stats / Facts
- Over 820,000 children and 20,000 women could be saved each year if babies were breastfed according to global recommendations.
- In a world filled with inequality, crises and poverty, #breastfeeding is the foundation of lifelong health for babies and mothers.
- #Breastfeeding is a universal solution that gives everyone a fair start in life and lays the foundation for women and children to survive AND thrive.
- #Breastfeeding is an equalizer that can help break the cycle of poverty.
- #Breastfeeding prevents hunger and malnutrition in all its forms.
- For women, #breastfeeding can help with birth spacing, reducing risk of breast and ovarian cancers and lower the risk of hypertension.
- For children, #breastfeeding combats infectious diseases, decreases diarrhea, lowers respiratory infections, prevents dental cavities and increases IQ.
Key Graphics
Creative Assets, Social Copy and Themes
The messaging included within this inspiration guide is meant to be used throughout the month of August, across social platforms along with the proposed graphics and/or other general breastfeeding imagery. Additionally, each graphic within this guide is downloadable. In order to save, right click and select Save As.
We've included both general breastfeeding content as well as messaging geared towards specific topics, depending on the weekly schedule. We encourage you to use content related to each week's theme as you plan your content.
Schedule:
- Week 1: World Breastfeeding Week (general content recommended)
- Week 2: Breastfeeding in Emergencies
- Week 3: No One Breastfeeds Alone
- Week 4: Black Breastfeeding Week
Facebook Profile Frame
How to add a Facebook Profile Frame: Add one of our World Breastfeeding Week temporary profile frames to your Facebook page to help raise awareness about breastfeeding!
Just go to: https://www.facebook.com/profilepicframes → Search “1000 Days” → Select your favorite → Click Use As Profile Picture.
We recommend using the frame during Week 1.
Investment Case for Breastfeeding
Use the below social copy and graphics to highlight the investment case for breastfeeding. We recommend using this as general content for Week 1 as well as through August.
Messaging
- Every $1 invested in #breastfeeding support generates $35 in benefits to economies. Investing in #breastfeeding is one of the smartest investments a country can make to ensure a smarter, healthier population.
- An investment of just $4.70 per newborn will ensure 50% of world’s babies are exclusively #breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life.
- Not #breastfeeding is associated with economic losses of about $302 BILLION annually – or 0.49% of world gross national income.
Graphics
Breastfeeding Scorecard
Use the below social copy and graphics to highlight the Breastfeeding Scorecard. We recommend using this as general content for Week 1 as well as through August.
Messaging
- For an advocate audience:
- Want to know where you can find the #facts on #breastfeeding? Check out the Global Breastfeeding Scorecard [http://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/infantfeeding/global-bf-scorecard-2017/en]
- How does YOUR country measure up on #breastfeeding? Find out with the Global Breastfeeding Scorecard Country Profiles [https://www.unicef.org/nutrition/index_100585.html]
- Overwhelmed by all the data on #breastfeeding? Check out the new Guide to Navigate the Global Breastfeeding Scorecard [www.who.int/nutrition/topics/global-bf-collective-scorecard-guide.pdf?ua=1]
- For the public:
- No country in the world is adequately supporting moms to reach their personal #breastfeeding goals. Check out this interactive map to see how your country measures up [https://www.unicef.org/breastfeeding/]
- Only 40% of our world’s babies under six months of age are exclusively #breastfeeding. Search this interactive map to see where [https://www.unicef.org/breastfeeding/]
Graphics
Breastfeeding in Emergencies
(Week 2 Theme of National Breastfeeding Month)
Use the below social copy and graphics to highlight breastfeeding in emergencies. We recommend using this as general content for Week 2 as well as through August.
Messaging
- #Breastfeeding is no easy feat - and when combined with the additional challenges that families face during emergencies, it can seem nearly impossible.
- #Breastfeeding in emergencies is no small task – moms face immense challenges, and we must provide support and put the rights, dignity and well-being of mothers at the center of our focus.
- In emergencies, #breastfeeding is the safest, most nutritious and reliable food source for infants under the age of 6 months.
- During emergencies, preparedness is key to ensure babies everywhere have the best opportunity to survive and thrive.
- When #breastfeeding isn’t possible during emergencies, immediate support is needed to explore feeding options and protect the health of vulnerable infants.
Graphics
Additional Resources
- Advocacy Brief from the Global Breastfeeding Collective
- Blog: 5 Things You Need to Know About Breastfeeding in Emergencies
- Guest Post: Supporting New Mothers in the Wake of Hurricane Maria
- CDC Disaster Planning: Infant and Child Feeding
No One Breastfeeds Alone
(Week 3 Theme of National Breastfeeding Month)
Use the below social copy and graphics to share how we can support breastfeeding. We recommend using this as general content for Week 3 as well as through August.
Messaging
- No one breastfeeds alone. It takes support from everyone – from parents to policymakers, health facilities, communities and employers. We all have a role to play in supporting #breastfeeding.
- With only 44% of the world’s newborns put to the breast within one hour after their arrival, the need for more supportive medical facilities and staff is REAL.
- What stands in the way of ensuring that at least HALF of the 🌎’s babies are exclusively breastfed by 2025? Women need more support to reach their #breastfeeding goals.
- From paid family leave to adequate accommodations for pumping breast milk, workplace support is vital to increasing global #breastfeeding rates.
- Whether #breastfeeding or not, moms deserve FACTS when it comes to feeding their little ones, not bogus health claims and aggressive marketing tactics. It’s time for the makers of infant formula to market their products ethically.
Graphics
Additional Resources
Black Breastfeeding Week - #LoveOnTop
(Week 4 Theme of National Breastfeeding Month)
The 6th annual Black Breastfeeding Week is coming on August 25-31. This year’s theme is “Love On Top.” We’re going deep into the reason we carry on as we celebrate the breastfeeding journey and also remember the precious souls gone too soon. This year, we say #LoveOnTop because love encompasses everything we do as parents from breastfeeding to nurturing others.
Black Breastfeeding Week was created because for over 40 years there has been a gaping racial disparity in breastfeeding rates. The most recent CDC data show that 75% of white women have ever breastfed versus 58.9% of black women. The fact that racial disparity in initiation and even bigger one for duration has lingered for so long is reason enough to take 7 days to focus on the issue.
Messaging
You can find social copy and graphics to highlight Black Breastfeeding Week at http://blackbreastfeedingweek.org/.
Key hashtags to use: #BBW18 #LoveOnTop
Register your event at http://tinyurl.com/BBW18event.
Graphics
Breastfeeding Stories
Use the below social copy and graphics to gather stories of women's experience breastfeeding. We recommend using this as general content throughout August.
Messaging
Option 1: Nursing your baby can be no easy feat.
That’s why we want to hear from YOU! What’s the absolute best breastfeeding advice you received or learned along the way?
Share in the comments below!
Option 2: It’s only from understanding the real-life experiences of women that we can hope to build a more inclusive, more supportive environment for all moms and their babies.
So we want to hear from you – and we want to hear it all! What do you wish you had known earlier? Were there moments that were particularly hard?
Tell us in the comments below!
Option 3: It’s only from understanding the real-life experiences of women that we can hope to build a more inclusive, more supportive environment for all moms and their babies.
We want to hear from you – and we want to hear it all! ⬇️