Washington, D.C. (PAHO) — The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is celebrating the world's premier sporting event with a campaign to promote the world's best baby food: breast milk.
The public service campaign, tied to this year's FIFA World Cup in South Africa, focuses on the benefits of breastfeeding for babies and mothers. Its slogan is "Breast milk: First Food of Champions."
The campaign's centerpiece is a poster (available in Spanish and Portuguese) that soccer fans can use to keep track of scores during the World Cup games. The poster, headlined "Two Great Passions: Soccer and breastfeeding," tells readers: "For the best start in life, your baby should be breastfed exclusively for the first six months. After that, breastfeeding should continue with complementary foods for two more years."
The poster, available on the PAHO website, may be downloaded and printed as a newspaper insert or as a stand-alone poster, or may be posted on websites as an electronic file.
Through flyers produced in Spanish, English, French and Portuguese, the PAHO campaign highlights the following facts about breastfeeding:
- Breastfeeding early and exclusively during a baby's first six months prevents neonatal and infant deaths, largely by reducing the risk of infectious diseases.
- About one-fifth of neonatal (under 1 month) deaths could be prevented if all newborns began breastfeeding during the first hour of life.
- Children who are breastfed for seven to nine months have, on average, six points higher IQ than children breastfed for less than a month.
- Breastfeeding decreases babies' risk for chronic illnesses such as type 2 diabetes.
- The benefits of breastfeeding are even greater for preterm and low birth-weight babies.
- Breastfeeding helps mothers lose weight and reduces their risk for breast and ovarian cancer as well as type 2 diabetes.
- Although nearly all newborns are able to breastfeed within the first hour of life, in nearly half the countries of the Americas, more than half of newborns are not given this opportunity.
The fact sheets and posters are available for download on the PAHO website and are being distributed throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
Click here to download printed materials and to view public service announcements produced for the campaign.
