Department of Health in Clay County celebrates World Breastfeeding Week

FLEMING ISLAND, Fla. — The Florida Department of Health in Clay County (DOH-Clay) Women, Infant, and Children Program (WIC) is getting ready to host a Community Baby Shower in celebration of World Breastfeeding Week.

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The Community Baby Shower will be held Aug. 3, 2022, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at DOH-Clay’s Fleming Island location at:

1845 Town Center Blvd., Suite 465

Fleming Island, FL 32003

The special event will include special guests from Ascension St. Vincent’s Clay, Healthy Stat, Doula Nayo, Episcopal Children’s Services, Safe Kids, North Florida OB/GYN and others.

The Community Baby shower will have raffles, games, food, music, and giveaways.

August is National Breastfeeding Month and comprises four week-long observances. These include World Breastfeeding Week, Indigenous Milk Medicine Week, Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Breastfeeding Week, and Black Breastfeeding Week.

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Aside from being a traditional means of providing nutrition, breastfeeding is an important tool to address food insecurity and poverty. It improves the life-long good health and well-being of women and their children.

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Research shows that when compared to formula-fed infants, breastfed infants have a reduced risk of the following:

• Infections such as ear infections and gastrointestinal infections (diarrhea/vomiting)

• Asthma

• Obesity

• Diabetes

• SIDS

Breastfeeding is also beneficial to mothers as well - when compared to mothers who don’t breastfeed, mothers who breastfeed have a reduced risk of:

• High blood pressure

• Type 2 diabetes

• Breast and ovarian cancer

• Postpartum depression

“DOH-Clay WIC Program offers a wide variety of education, resources and staff to help pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and children up to the age of five including access to Registered Dietitians, Certified Lactation Counselors and Breastfeeding Peer Counselors, who provide mother-to-mother basic breastfeeding education and support to pregnant and breastfeeding moms,” said Heather Huffman, administrator for DOH-Clay.

For more information about the WIC program, call (904) 529-2800 (option 3) or visit http://www.floridahealth.gov/programs-and-services/wic/index.html. To learn more about National Breastfeeding Month and the benefits of breastfeeding visit www.usbreastfeeding.org, www.llli.org or www.flbreastfeeding.org.