A Look Back at World Breastfeeding Week in Ukraine

During World Breastfeeding Week, held August 1–7, International Medical Corps held a number of events across the country for Ukrainian women and their children.

For example, we organized a picnic in the European Square Park in Vinnytsia, a city in central Ukraine. The event included one-on-one consultations with experts on infant and young-child feeding (IYCF) during emergencies, group classes on IYCF, distribution of educational materials and small gifts for event participants, and a photo exhibition.

An International Medical Corps staff member greets a mother and her baby.

Children color in the park during the picnic.

Ukrainian mothers attend a group class on Infant and young-child feeding.

A mother plays with her daughter in European Square Park, Vinnytsia.

Two children look over a page of cartoons.

New mothers attend educational classes in the park.

Two girls draw together.

At the event, mothers received educational materials to take home.

We also provided training to frontline responders—in July alone, we trained 42 medical workers in Vinnytsia on IYCF in emergency situations. During these training sessions, breastfeeding consultants talked about the benefits of breastfeeding for women who are able to breastfeed, and ways to restore and maintain milk supply for mothers who want to breastfeed their babies but who may be challenged by breastfeeding, especially when experiencing the stress caused by war.