'Breastival' Serves As Teaching Moment, Place For Peer Support

DENVER (CBS4) - A festival drew dozens of people to Cheesman park as a way to educate parents about breastfeeding. One of the best ways to keep a baby strong and healthy is by breastfeeding them.

Yet still, breastfeeding rates are dropping across the U.S.

Saturday women came together to teach each other about breastfeeding. The Colorado Breastfeeding Coalition (COBFC) hosts the "Breastival" every year."

It's a clever name, but serious business. Breastfeeding rates are actually on the rise and have been both nationally and in Colorado for the last decade. In the state approximately 90% of women choose to start breastfeeding.

"It's preventative for obesity, it can prevent SIDS, it can prevent lots of G.I. infections, ear infections cancers for mom cancers for baby well into childhood," said Stacy Miller, an organizer with COBFC.

The event on Saturday was meant to serve as an opportunity for moms who are trying to breastfeed for the first time to learn to connect mothers with the people who know.

"In the past it was the collective wisdom of the community that could help problem solve those challenges, and now it's really our lactation professionals and the peer support that could do that," said Linda Kopecky, an organizer with COBFC.

They are also trying to normalize breastfeeding which is why they held legally protected group latch on.

"When a mother is breastfeeding her child in public she is feeding her child. It is not about exposing her breast. It is not sexual. It is not being an exhibitionist, it is feeding her child."

The coalition hopes that by gaining acceptance and creating a community of peers they can once again get more mothers to breastfeed, for the health of their children.

"Breast milk is the best," said Kopecky.

The Colorado Breastfeeding Coalition says breastfeeding often doesn't come as naturally as one might think. If you are a mother who needs help they say you can always find more information at https://cobfc.org/.