Strengthening what works: How JA PreventNCD is supporting breastfeeding across Europe

Breastfeeding can provide important health benefits from the very beginning of life and contribute to better health in the years that follow. But families need more than information about its benefits. They need skilled support, reliable guidance and environments that make breastfeeding possible. Supporting breastfeeding is therefore a shared responsibility across healthcare services, families, communities, workplaces and public policy.

For World Breastfeeding Week 2026, JA PreventNCD is highlighting work taking place across Europe to strengthen breastfeeding support in healthcare services, communities, workplaces, education and other settings.

The theme of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week, “Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works,” closely reflects this approach: building on effective solutions and creating support that lasts beyond an awareness week.

This year’s campaign will also highlight new evidence supporting investment in breastfeeding. On 4 and 5 August, WHO and UNICEF, through the Global Breastfeeding Collective, will launch an updated global investment case for breastfeeding. The event will examine the economic benefits of investing in breastfeeding support, which interventions have the strongest evidence behind them and what would be required to scale them up. Learn more and register for the webinar.

Non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and other long-term health conditions, are often associated with choices and exposures during adulthood. However, the foundations of lifelong health begin much earlier.

The first 1,000 days, from pregnancy to a child’s second birthday, are a particularly important period for growth, development and future health. Nutrition, breastfeeding, caregiving, living conditions and other social and environmental influences during this period can help shape health trajectories throughout life.

Breastfeeding is far more than a way of providing nutrition. Breastmilk is uniquely adapted to an infant’s needs and contains immune factors, hormones, bioactive compounds and living cells that support growth and development and help protect against infections. These complex biological effects may also contribute to longer-term health benefits for children, while breastfeeding itself is associated with important longer-term health benefits for mothers.

Breastfeeding is associated with a lower long-term risk of overweight and obesity in children and with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in mothers.

This is why JA PreventNCD considers breastfeeding support part of a life-course approach to preventing cardiovascular diseases, cancer and other non-communicable diseases.

Learn more in our editorial, The first 1,000 days: a window of opportunities for future health, and in our guest article published on the JACARDI website, Breastfeeding and the first 1,000 days: an overlooked frontier for disease prevention and health promotion in Europe.

Support for breastfeeding should not end when a family leaves the maternity ward. Many questions and challenges arise during the following weeks and months, when families need accessible and consistent support close to home.

The Baby-Friendly Community Health Services Best Practice initiative extends the WHO and UNICEF Baby-Friendly approach into primary healthcare services and communities.

The model helps services systematically protect, promote and support breastfeeding through:

• competent and appropriately trained healthcare professionals;
• clear and consistent infant-feeding policies;
• evidence-based information for families;
• compliance with the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes;
• monitoring and evaluation;
• coordination between healthcare services and the wider community;
• cross-sectoral collaboration and shared responsibility among health, social, educational and community actors.

The Norwegian model was recognised by the European Commission as a best practice for NCD prevention in 2022. Through JA PreventNCD, the approach is now being transferred and adapted to different healthcare systems and communities across Europe.

Implementation includes work in Norway, Italy, Lithuania, Ukraine, Greece, Slovenia, Spain and other participating countries. Activities range from self-assessment and professional training to developing common infant-feeding policies, strengthening referral pathways and monitoring breastfeeding indicators.

In Castelló, Spain, for example, JA PreventNCD partners are supporting 16 healthcare centres through a joint Baby-Friendly designation process. In Finnmark, northern Norway, 14 municipalities are implementing the best practice. In Italy, four Local Health Authorities are implementing the best practice, while Trentino’s integrated health authority was recently recertified by UNICEF Italy as a Baby-Friendly Community. Lithuania is strengthening the knowledge and skills of health professionals across all 60 municipalities.

These different experiences share a common goal: ensuring that effective breastfeeding support is built into services and communities rather than left to individual effort.

Read more about Baby-Friendly Community Health Services expanding across Europe and explore the implementation guidance and practical materials.

Timely, skilled counselling can make an important difference when families experience breastfeeding challenges. However, the knowledge and counselling skills of healthcare professionals can vary, and breastfeeding may receive limited attention during professional education.

BreastFEEDucation is a free and flexible online course developed through JA PreventNCD to strengthen breastfeeding counselling across Europe.

Designed for healthcare professionals, students and educational institutions, it combines:

• short expert lectures;
• practical case-based discussions;
• visual demonstrations;
• interactive questions and assessments;
• up-to-date, quality-assured evidence.

The course is aligned with WHO and UNICEF Baby-Friendly standards and can support both university education and continuing professional development. Its purpose is to help families receive high-quality and consistent support throughout the continuum of care.

Parents frequently encounter large amounts of information about breastfeeding and infant feeding, particularly online. That information can be inconsistent, confusing or influenced by commercial interests.

JA PreventNCD has supported the development of short, evidence-based videos for parents. The videos cover breastfeeding, formula feeding and the introduction of solid foods, responding to common questions during a baby’s first year.

Providing reliable information supports informed decisions. It should also be accompanied by skilled, personalised care that recognises the circumstances and needs of each family.

Whether families can begin and continue breastfeeding is influenced by much more than personal knowledge or motivation. Supporting breastfeeding should never mean placing responsibility or blame solely on individual mothers.

Healthcare services, employment conditions, parental leave, family support, social attitudes, access to care and the information environment can all make breastfeeding easier or more difficult. These conditions are not experienced equally, and families facing social, economic or geographic disadvantages may encounter greater barriers. These are systematic barriers, not failures of individual mothers or families.

JA PreventNCD is therefore working across different settings, including healthcare, workplaces, education, digital environments and emergency-response systems. The aim is to support breastfeeding while addressing the social, commercial and environmental conditions that shape infant feeding.

This includes protecting families from inappropriate marketing of breast-milk substitutes. The purpose is not to withhold information about formula or judge families who use it. It is to ensure that decisions are based on accurate, independent information and that substitutes are properly used when necessary.

Emergencies can disrupt healthcare, access to clean water, food supplies and the support networks on which families rely. Infants and young children are particularly vulnerable in these circumstances.

JA PreventNCD has brought together experts and practical experiences on infant feeding in emergencies. This work highlights the importance of trained responders, prepared health services, appropriate management of breast-milk substitutes and community systems that protect mothers, infants and young children before, during and after a crisis.

Effective breastfeeding support depends on shared action across healthcare services, workplaces, communities and public policy.

It means ensuring that families have skilled support when they need it, reliable information they can trust and environments that respect and enable their decisions. It means helping healthcare professionals develop the right knowledge and skills. It also means developing policies and services that reach families across different communities and circumstances.

During World Breastfeeding Week, JA PreventNCD will share more about why breastfeeding matters for lifelong prevention, what experts say effective support looks like and how practical initiatives are helping to strengthen support across Europe.

Follow JA PreventNCD throughout the week and explore our work on Baby-Friendly Community and Health Services.