1/13 A Xikrin mother listens to music as she breastfeeds her daughter.

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2/13 A mother breastfeeds her son during the Tuaregs exodus in Mauritania.

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3/13 A mother breastfeeding her son in Bandiagara, Mali. Bandiagara is a small town and urban commune in the Mopti Region of Mali.

Xavier Rossi

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4/13 Back in 2014, a tribe of people living in the Peruvian Amazon, who previously had no contact with the outside world, contacted a tribe near the Brazil-Peru border.

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5/13 Chan Heit, 24, nurses her baby, Sey Lek, who is less than a year old, as she strokes an injured pigeon. She has three kids and lives on the streets in a small community of former soldiers and homeless kids.

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6/13 Portrait of woman preparing to breastfeed her baby.

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7/13 Beauty Begum (28) is breastfeeding her child during her lunch break on 23 May, 2013 in Chittagong, Bangladesh. She and her husband work in a garment factory. Her children are looked after by her neighbors.

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8/13 A mother is breastfeeding her child after collecting iron and other salvaged material in the ruins of a fire-hit slum on 28 January, 2016 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

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9/13 Tess Holiday shares a photo of her son breastfeeding before a photoshoot.

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10/13 A Mozambican woman who has fled the war in Mozambique breastfeeds twins in a refugee camp.

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11/13 Uzbek mother brestfeeding a newborn baby.

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12/13 Relative of the bride breastfeeding in a quiet room among fruit laid out for the wedding guests.

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13/13 A young mother breastfeeding her child in a village near Nagpur, Maharashtra on 30 January, 2007.

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In photos: Breastfeeding week dedicated to all mothers out there

Sehar Qazi @CatchNews | Updated on: 3 August 2016, 18:09 IST

The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action organised the first ever World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) in 1992. The week is held from 1-7 August, to encourage the benefits of breastfeeding and to improve the health of babies around the world.

According to UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO), breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to save and improve the lives of children around the world.

This week also allows for a better understanding of breastfeeding. It helps in de-stigmatising mothers who choose to breastfeed in public.

The theme for 2016 WBW is about how breastfeeding is a key element in getting us to think about how we value our well being from the start of life. Also about how we respect each other and care for the world we share.

This week is dedicated to all breastfeeding and nursing mothers who know when a baby is hungry. Here are some iconic photographs