World Breastfeeding Week is August 1 through the 7th and Champaign Urbana’s Public Health Office is putting on a number of different events about which we want everyone to know. ON August 2nd we will be having a Working Mom’s Breastfeeding Expo, which though the title does not suggest it, is open to ALL breastfeeding moms and their kids. Different practitioners and places in Champaign Urbana who are available to help support breastfeeding moms in our community will be available. This will include the hospitals, Theresa Hardy, La Leche League, Tree of Life Doulas, HFS, Crisis Nursery, McCabe Chiropractic, as well as Certified Lactation Counselors available to answer questions and activities for older kids attending with their mothers. There will be a raffle.
The next two days, August 3rd and 4th we will be hosting The Big Latch On. This is an opportunity for all breastfeeding moms to participate in making a world record by “latching on” at the same time (10:30am both days, registration begins at 9:30am) as other moms at the public health office and around the world. A witness will record the number of moms at our location and this number will be added to the number of other participants. Hopefully we will make a new world record!
We are also running a normalcy campaign. This will involve placing cardboard cut outs of breastfeeding dyads around the community. Each cut out is of a different mom and each is tasteful, meaning that no skin is showing. At this time, we have one hospital and several businesses that are interested in hosting these cut outs. We are looking for more, so if you are interested please let us know! Each cardboard cut out will have the Illinois Breastfeeding Laws in business card size on them for people to take.
Our last, but more continuous, campaign is to certify local businesses, establishments and daycares as “breastfeeding friendly,” according to specific criteria. These places will receive a certificate with a gold, silver or bronze star on it, depending on their level of “friendliness” and a window sticker to display. All of these places will be on a resource list at the public health office. They will also be posted on chambanamoms.com. Please let us know if you or a place you know would be interested in certification or if you know of a breastfeeding friendly place that deserves certification. We are also available to do trainings for those places that would like to be breastfeeding friendly, but are not yet.
Come help us celebrate World Breastfeeding Week by participating in some or all of our breastfeeding events!