WHEREAS, enhancing maternal health is a fundamental value of Governor Youngkin’s “Healthy Moms, Healthy Families, and Healthy Communities” initiative and is of utmost importance to the happiness, vitality, and livelihood of our Commonwealth’s families and communities; and

WHEREAS, optimal nutrition is of vital significance in the early months and years of life and has a lifelong impact on sustained health; and

WHEREAS, breast milk is physiologically tailored to meet infants’ maturing digestive systems, ensuring proper growth and development, and helping to prevent a variety of acute and chronic diseases; and

WHEREAS, breastfeeding is a natural, renewable food that is environmentally safe, produced and delivered without pollution or packaging waste, and is a sustainable infant feeding choice that strengthens community resiliency; and

WHEREAS, breastfeeding strengthens the emotional and physical bond between mother and child and provides women with health benefits such as recovering more quickly from childbirth, reduced risk of ovarian, uterine, and breast cancer, as well as osteoporosis and high blood pressure; and

WHEREAS, breast milk transmits key antibodies that prevent severe infections and promote effective immune modulation, inflammation regulation, and tissue development; and

WHEREAS, breastfeeding lowers the risk of postpartum depression and high blood pressure, which are prevalent among women following delivery; and

WHEREAS, breastfeeding is a public health focus area because the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion hopes to increase the proportion of infants who are breastfed at one year of age to 54 percent; and

WHEREAS, 73 percent of mothers return to full-time employment within six months of giving birth, so workplace lactation accommodation is necessary and critical to meeting this goal; and

WHEREAS, pasteurized human donor milk can be a lifesaving treatment for medically fragile infants and a nutritional bridge to exclusive breastfeeding, and Virginia mothers have generously donated breastmilk to those in need; and

WHEREAS, food security and safe infant feeding are a priority to support healthy moms, families, and communities, and the Virginia Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program provides nutrition education, breastfeeding promotion and support, and supplemental nutritious foods; and

WHEREAS, the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action declared August 1-7, 2025, as World Breastfeeding Week, and the 2025 theme is “Prioritize Breastfeeding: Create Sustainable Support Systems;” and

WHEREAS, the Virginia Department of Health strives to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding in a joint effort with hospital systems and community partners; and, to keep breastfeeding high on the public health agenda to improve the health and well-being of our communities;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Glenn Youngkin, do hereby recognize August 2025, as BREASTFEEDING AWARENESS MONTH in the COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and I call this observance to the attention of all of our citizens.