Asian Pacific Islander Breastfeeding Week

Open Arms Perinatal Services recognizes the third week in August as Asian Pacific Islander Breastfeeding Week

August is National Breastfeeding Month and while the second week has been recognized as Native Breastfeeding Week and the fourth week as Black Breastfeeding Week, the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community has not been recognized. Open Arms wants to identify and support API breastfeeding families by creating a separate week to engage our API community.

API families in King County face barriers which impede their ability to access resources like lactation support. To address these challenges, with the support of Best Starts for Kids, Open Arms recently launched a culturally focused Lactation Support Program offering no cost community-based personalized lactation support to members of the Pacific Islander community.

Lactation Support Peer Counselor, Mary Concepcion hosts weekly Virtual Lactation Lounges through Zoom and frequently participates in Facebook Live discussions. She also offers individualized support from pregnancy throughout the first year of life for those who identify as Pacific Islanders.

Latch on and get to know her by reading her bio and hearing her share her lactation journey, or watching her Facebook Live videos. During this this week’s Friday Facebook Live she will be discussing lactation and cultural traditions within the Pacific Islander community.

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