UNICEF, others call for increased awareness on breastfeeding

 

 As Nigeria joined the rest of the world to celebrate this year World Breastfeeding Week, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and stakeholders in the health sector has called on the benefits of breastfeeding (considered as the healthiest and most reliable nutrition for babies’ survival) to be broadcast beyond clinics and delivery rooms to the public at large.

 

The UN body also tasked young people in developing and wealthier countries to understand the importance of breastfeeding long before they become parents.

 

In a statement to mark this year’s Breastfeeding week tagged “Talk to Me: Breastfeeding a 3D Experience,” Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director, disclosed that breast milk remained a high impact intervention for ensuring the survival, adequate growth and development of the child.

 

While noting that breastfeeding has been directly linked to reducing the death toll of children under five years of age, Lake revealed that scientific evidence show that breastfeeding could lead to a 13 percent reduction in deaths of children under five if infants were exclusively breastfed for 6 months and continued to be breastfed up to one year.

 

 

According to the UNICEF Executive Director, “Breastfeeding plays an important role in preventing stunting (low height for age), a condition that can cause irreversible physical and cognitive damage which is viewed as a key indicator reflecting inequities in society. The breast milk is the ideal nourishment for infants for the first six months of life as it contains all nutrients, antibodies, hormones and antioxidants and other factors an infant needs to thrive.”

 

He added that “With so much at stake, we need to do more to reach women with a simple, powerful message: ‘Breastfeeding can save your baby’s life.’ No other preventive intervention is more cost effective in reducing the number of children who die before reaching their fifth birthdays.”

 

Echoing the sentiments of Lake, Olarenwaju Ekujimi, President, National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) revealed that women generally receive information on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding when they go for antenatal care visits, or after they deliver their babies but this has been difficult to carry out by nursing mothers bearing in mind economic challenges which abounds in the country.

 

Ekujimi, a physician at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-araba, Lagos, maintained that when breastfeeding support is examined, a three dimensional approach is seen: time (from pre-pregnancy to weaning); place (the home, community, health care system, etc) and communication.

 

“Communication is an essential part of protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding. We live in a world where individuals and global communities connect across small and great distances at an instant's notice. New lines of communication are being created every day, and we have the ability to use these information channels to broaden our horizons and spread breastfeeding information beyond our immediate time and place to activate important dialogue.

 

“Communication and advocacy for active involvement in protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding at all levels is important to increase the percentage of exclusively breastfed infants. Currently, some infants less than six months of age are exclusively breastfed worldwide. Protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding is important because, even though breastfeeding is natural, it is also a learned behaviour.” Ekujimi stated.

 

Taking a cursory look at the 2008 National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS), it was noticed that there was a significant drop in Nigeria's exclusive breast feeding rate from 17 percent in 2003 to 13 percent with reasons ranging from ignorance to traditional beliefs one of which has to do with water.

 

While scientific evidence has shown that a child who is exclusively breastfed does not need additional water since breast milk itself contains 90 percent water, there is the need for nursing mothers to improve breast feeding practice and increase exclusive breast feeding rate by tackling the issue of giving the infant water.

 

For Onyebuchi Chukwu, Minister of Health “there is the need for mothers to breast feed their babies within half an hour of delivery. Mothers should avoid giving water and continue to breast feed for 6 month. At 6 months, complementary feeding should be introduced while continuing breastfeeding for 2 years on demand.

 

Chukwu however called on all and sundry to reach out, through any and all communication channels, share the messages needed to empower ever y woman and every community to succeed in optimal breastfeeding.

 

 

 

 

While evidence that breastfeeding practices are improving in many countries, much more can be done to unleash the full benefits of optimal breastfeeding for children's and women's health. In addition, broader use of various technologies for capacity building and access to updated information in many health related areas, including nutrition is needed to ensure that the populace gets informed to ensure these infants gets protection and care.

It will be recalled that World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from 1 to 7 August in more than 120 countries to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world. It also commemorates the Innocenti Declaration made by WHO and UNICEF policy-makers in August 1990 to protect, promote and support breastfeeding