Breastfeeding is celebrated every year from 1 to 7 August during World Breastfeeding Week to encourage it and improve the health of babies around the world. It commemorates the Innocenti Declaration signed in August 1990 by government policymakers, WHO, UNICEF and other organizations to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.
Teresa Kis from Tivat NGO "I Support Breastfeeding" says for TMN that this is a very important item in the health chain, for both the child and the mother. NGO “Center for Counseling and Personal Development” received €15,665 for the project “Breastfeeding School - Tivat” after the competition under the Regional Program of Local Democracy in the Western Balkans (ReLOaD), funded by the European Union (EU), implemented by the Municipality of Tivat and UNDP.
As "My Support for Breastfeeding" deals with the child and the mother, this is how the cooperation with the NGO Center for Counseling and Personal Development was organized, which for the past three years conducted workshops for parents "Parenting School", where they were supported by experts in several cycles from psychotherapy how to cope with the parenting situation as easily as possible. The goal is to empower families.
Teresa Kish announced a series of workshops for pregnant women and mothers to promote breastfeeding as a basis for lifelong health.
"We will try our best to get all pregnant women and mothers from Tivat to breastfeed, to simply wait for that moment of feeding their baby as readily as possible and of course to persist in it. The health center gave us support. The whole school will be held on their premises and in cooperation with their doctors," she pointed out.
"The plan is for the project to last for ten months, with one cycle per workshop for each group, meaning four workshops per month. Groups will change every month, but whoever wants to repeat it is not a problem.
In the first workshop, we will talk about the importance of breastfeeding and other general things and guidelines, the practical part and the like. We expect a gynecologist to attend, who will explain how breastfeeding works in the maternity ward,” Kish pointed out.
A public debate marking World Breastfeeding Week will be held on August 7th at noon in the Tivat Health Center. Introductory presentations will be given by Tereza Kiš, who is a lecturer at the Tivat Breastfeeding School, Dr. Danica Stevovic, a pediatrician at the Tivat Health Center and Vera Janjatovic a visiting nurse at the Health Center.
"During World Breastfeeding Week, the theme is 'Empower Parents, Enable Breastfeeding.' Our workshops are open not only to pregnant women but also to their partners, future grandmothers, sisters, girlfriends and all those who want to get to know each other and be the first support when the mother leaves the maternity ward.
It often happens that the mother makes the initial mistakes just under the influence of an environment that is not competent to give advice and does not know how to support the mother. It is also crucial for us to empower mothers after childbirth, so we will also have a Support Phone that will be active every day from 11 am to 5 pm. Everyone will get the best answer,” Kish said.
She said that progress was made by the increasing number of dads asking about certain situations and problems.
The school is also active on social networks, so anyone interested can find it under the name "My breastfeeding support Teresa Kish", and the support phone number is 068 / 502-972.
