Family

Breast feed exclusively

Breast feeding is the best gift a mother can give to her baby
Breast feeding is the best gift a mother can give to her baby

As the world is commemorating breast feeding day, a 2012 report by Unicef titled Improving Exclusive Breastfeeding Practices shows that 20 percent of all neonatal deaths could be prevented within the first hour of life.

Apparently, some women deliberately avoid breast feeding..

Rose Banda, a nurse who works for one of the private hospitals in Blantyre, says some women choose not to breastfeed for fear of letting their breast get big and saggy, a tendency she says should not be entertained.

According to Banda, most modern women prefer bottle feeding their children forgetting that breast milk has all essential nutrients.

“Breast milk contains all the nutrients needed for the baby to grow, but unfortunately some mothers take this for granted,” she says.

According to Banda, mothers who are found HIV positive are told to breastfeed their baby for three consecutive months.

Gynaecologists Bonus Makanani of Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital says the rate of mother-to-child transmission depends on factors affecting mothers, their pregnancies and their deliveries.

“In the absence of any intervention, the rate of transmission in breastfeeding women is between 30-40 percent in the first year of life. In non-breastfeeding women, the rate is 15-20 percent. Mother-to-child transmission can occur within three points during pregnancy: before labour, during labour, delivery and of course, through breastfeeding,” says Makanani

The unicef report says exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is the most reliable and must be encouraged.

“EBF is known to be most effective preventive intervention to reduce early-childhood mortality. Optimum breastfeeding practices exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and continued breastfeeding to 12 months tops the list of preventive interventions that would most reduce the number of deaths of children less than five years old from all causes,” reads the report in part.

According to the report, breastfeeding has profound benefits for infants that extend beyond childhood, numerous benefits for mothers and benefits for the family.

“Breastfed children have at least a six times greater chance of survival in the early months than non-breastfed children. In the first six months of life, breastfed infants are six times less likely to die from diarrhoea and 2.5 times less likely to die from acute respiratory infection.

“Sometimes the challenge is in giving women accurate information about how to position the baby and how to breastfeed effectively, this is called breastfeeding-on-the-run. Mothers must be taught on how best they should position their child when breastfeeding so that the baby receives the milk in full,” reads the report.

Related Articles

Back to top button