MORE WOMEN PRACTICE EXCLUSIVE BREASTFEEDING

(Daily Graphic, Oct 22, 2011, Page 11)

EXCLUSIVE breastfeeding is on the increase in the Northern Region as more women, families and communities have accepted the practice.

This is the assessment of public health authorities in the region following a number of community outreaches that have contributed to deepening the understanding and appreciation of the benefits of breastfeeding among local communities.

Some few years back, some communities refused to accept the practice of exclusive and extended breastfeeding due to their firm adherence to traditional practices that did not recognise any of these.

Apart from preventing newborns from taking the yellowish milk that flows from their mother’s breasts on their first attempt, these communities also preferred giving newborns water along with breast milk, even before the babies reached their sixth month.

These practices had been a source of worry to health personnel in the region, thereby necessitating an intensified campaign on breastfeeding in local communities.

Speaking at a durbar to mark the annual Breastfeeding Week at the Tamale West Hospital, the Northern Regional Nutrition Officer, Mr Sofo Muntari noted that these unhealthy practices were on the decline.

“Through our rounds in the various communities, we have realised that many families now allow lactating mothers to practice exclusive breastfeeding,” he stated.

Mr Muntari said what was even pleasing was that these families and communities no more objected to their newborns taking in the yellowish milk.

“The first milk is very crucial to the baby’s wellbeing. It contains a number of nutrients that would propel the baby’s physical and mental growth and also strengthen the baby’s immune system,” he explained.

Mr Muntari further noted that women in the local communities now testify that exclusive breastfeeding and breastfeeding up to two years impacts positively on the health of both mothers and their babies.

He mentioned, for instance, that some of the women had noticed that proper breastfeeding had helped in delaying their next pregnancies.

He also mentioned that the women had equally observed that babies who benefitted from exclusive and extended breastfeeding looked healthier and fell sick less often than those who were denied.

The Nutrition Officer said apart from these, proper breastfeeding also binds a child to the mother and makes the child to be emotionally stable.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Northern Regional Minister, Mr Bukari Moses Mabengba said the government had thrown its weight behind breastfeeding campaigns because it is crucial if the country is to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He said when mothers practice breastfeeding in its right form, it improves they and their children’s health, thereby reducing child and maternal mortality.

He also noted that breastfeeding had the potential to help countries reduce poverty as contained in the MDGs, because through breastfeeding, babies and children get access to good food and medicine at no cost to their mothers and the entire family.

Meanwhile, as part of the breastfeeding week celebrations, the Tiyumba Drama Group in Tamale staged a drama to drive home the importance of exclusive breastfeeding and by so doing demonstrated the problems that occur when families refuse to practice it.

A number of pregnant women and lactating mothers who were at the durbar to learn more about breastfeeding shared their experiences with the Daily Graphic.

“My husband is one who does not joke with the advice of nurses, so he ensures that I always give our baby only breast milk,” a mother of a four-month-old baby boy, Issah Ayisha stated.

She said her child had a lot of weight due to the breast milk and so she was optimistic he would grow thicker than his father, who she described as slim.

A seven-month-old pregnant woman, Fati Mohammed, said although she had learnt a lot about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, she would have wished her parents and husband were also at the forum, so they could equally appreciate the message.