WORLD BREAST FEEDING WEEK

(1-7) AUGUST 2022

World Breast feeding week is celebrated every year from 1 to 7 August to encourage breast feeding and improve the health of children around the world. 

The theme for 2022 is 

" STEP UP FOR BREAST FEEDING 

 EDUCATE AND SUPPORT"

    According to UNICEF, a baby should be breastfed within an hour of birth and this should continue for the first six months of the child’s life. Breastfeeding plays an important role in managing the burden of malnutrition. Breastfeeding provides food security and reduces inequality in society. 

    World Breastfeeding Week aims to highlight the huge benefits that breastfeeding can bring to the health and welfare of babies and benefits to maternal health, focusing on good nutrition, poverty reduction, and food security.

    The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, followed by continued breastfeeding with appropriate complementary foods for up to 2 years and beyond. 

    All mothers should be supported to initiate breastfeeding as soon as possible after birth, within the first hour after delivery and should receive practical support to enable them to initiate and establish breastfeeding and manage common breastfeeding difficulties.

    Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival. Breastmilk is the ideal food for infants. It is safe, clean and contains antibodies which help protect against many common childhood illnesses. Breastmilk provides all the energy and nutrients that the infant needs for the first months of life, and it continues to provide up to half or more of a child’s nutritional needs during the second half of the first year, and up to one third during the second year of life. 

BENEFITS OF BREAST FEEDING

FOR BABIES

• Breast milk is the best source of nutrition for babies
• It protects babies from short -term and long-term illness
• Breast milk contains anti bodies which helps to build strong immune system in babies
• It is readily available at right temperature
• It is easy to digest
• It promotes healthy weight gain and prevents child hood obesity.

FOR MOTHER

• Breast feeding helps to reduce weight 
• Breast feeding helps the uterus contract
• Breast fed mother have a lower risk for depression
• Breast feeding lowers the risk of high blood pressure, cardio vascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, ovarian cancer and breast cancer
• Continued breastfeeding also pauses ovulation and menstruation. The suspension of menstrual cycles may actually be nature’s way of ensuring there’s some time between pregnancies.
• Breast feeding saves money and time

TEN STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL BREAST FEEDING

1.  Hospitals should support breast feeding by not promoting formula feeds and bottle feeding. They should make standard practice for breastfeeding care.
2. Hospitals should support breast feeding by training the staffs on supporting breast feeding mothers and analyze their knowledge and skills
3. During antenatal care have to discuss the importance of breast feeding for babies and mothers and prepare them how to feed their baby.
4. The care right after birth should be skin to skin contact between mother and baby and helping mothers to put the baby in the breast at right way
5. Support mothers to breast feed by check the positioning, attachment and suckling and helping mothers with common breastfeeding problems
6. supplementing with donor breast milk when it is needed
7. Make sure the baby and mother stay together day and night
8. Help mothers to know when their baby is hungry and not limiting the breast feed timings
9. Counselling to be given for mothers about the risk of using bottles, teats and pacifiers
10. Refer mothers to community resources for breast feeding.

"BREAST FEED IS A WAY TO CREATE BETTER BONDING BETWEEN MOTHER AND THE BABY"