The idea of World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) came from a global unifying breastfeeding promotion strategy initiated by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA). In order to facilitate and strengthen social mobilisation for breastfeeding, a day dedicated to breastfeeding was suggested to be marked in the calendar of international events. The idea of a day's celebration was later turned into a week.

World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) was first celebrated in 1992 to commemorate the Innocenti Declaration. The official date of WBW is 1-7 August. Several places celebrate breastfeeding at other times such as during the first week of October. The tenth month of the year is chosen because it is in the first week of life (after nine months of gestation) that a baby starts to breastfeed. Most European countries as well as Canada and Brazil have already adopted this date. It has some other advantages including being able to access schools which are closed for the summer, and fewer people are away on vacation at this time, so more people will be available for more celebration activities. Now WBW celebration involves over 120 countries and is endorsed by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Overall coordination of WBW is done at the WABA Secretariat in Penang, Malaysia, which includes the selection of the theme and slogan, identifying resource persons for a specific theme and the preparation and dissemination of WBW materials such as the calendar announcement, posters, action folders and banners. These advocacy materials serve to stimulate action among local groups, governments, UN and other organizations for their own WBW activities in their area/country.

For more information about WBW, please visit http://www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org/