World Breastfeeding Week: Empowering Parents, Enabling Breastfeeding

This year’s World Breastfeeding Week, held from August 1st to 7th, focuses on the theme “Let’s make breastfeeding and work, work!” The presentation will delve into strategies for creating supportive workplaces that enable breastfeeding, emphasizing the importance of United Kingdom extended maternity leave and necessary workplace accommodations.

By addressing the significant challenges faced by working mothers, this session will advocate for essential maternity rights and highlight best practices to ensure breastfeeding is feasible for all women, irrespective of their work settings. Join us to explore actions and strategies to support breastfeeding mothers in balancing their professional and breastfeeding responsibilities.

Speaker: Henry Enunu

I am a dedicated nursing, public health, and nutrition professional with over 20 years of experience in clinical and public health settings. I hold a BSc in Nursing from the University of Eastern Africa, Baraton, Kenya, and an MPH from BRAC University, Bangladesh. I am pursuing a Ph.D. in Health Systems Management at Kenya Methodist University. I have expertise in Nutrition in Emergencies programming, Continuous Quality Improvement, programs/projects management, Knowledge exchange, and sharing just to mention a few. I have strong leadership, supportive supervision, and mentoring skills. He is fluent in English, Kiswahili, Ng’aturkana, French, and Arabic. My career goal is to alleviate suffering among underserved populations worldwide by providing essential health services and leading emergency response efforts.

Objectives:

1. Inform:
   – Increase awareness about the theme “Let’s make breastfeeding and work, work!”
   – Educate the audience on the health and economic benefits of breastfeeding for mothers and infants.
2. Anchor:
   – Highlight the importance of supportive workplace policies for successful breastfeeding.
   – Show how breastfeeding contributes to achieving sustainable development goals in health, gender equality, and economic growth.
3. Engage:
   – Encourage stakeholders, such as employers and policymakers, to support breastfeeding-friendly workplaces.
   – Foster discussions about the challenges and solutions for breastfeeding at work.
4. Galvanize:
   – Motivate participants to advocate for better maternity rights and workplace accommodations.
   – Inspire actions to create supportive environments for breastfeeding across various work settings.