Breastfeeding underscored to newborns, mothers

HILDA MHAGAMA

EXPECTANT mothers should be given key information by healthcare providers on how best to breastfeed and handle their newborns, half an hour after birth.

Speaking at a breakfast meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC) Coordinator for infant nutrition, Ms Neema Joshua, said most of such mothers were lacking such crucial information necessary in protecting the newborns against contracting any disease.

“It is saddening to learn that these women have no access to the key information or support on breastfeeding in the country. Thus, healthcare providers are duty-bound to part this knowledge to them while attending clinics,” she underlined.

The breakfast meeting was aimed at sharing new evidence from the Lancet series showing health and economic benefits of breastfeeding.

Ms Joshua also underscored that mothers in the maternity wards who have had normal vaginal deliveries must handle their infants and have skin contact with them within a half an hour of birth for at least 30 minutes. She also said that during the period, healthcare providers should assist the mothers to initiate breastfeeding.

“We have noticed most of healthcare providers in many hospitals in the country do not educate and help mothers in initiating breastfeeding soon after the baby is born,” she said.

Elaborating further, she said mothers who practice it are more likely to have a successful breastfeeding experience, placing babies in skin-to-skin contact with their mothers immediately after birth for at least an hour and encourage mothers to recognise when their babies are ready to breastfeed.

Presenting the overview of new evidence from the Lancet series, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Senior Advisor Infant and young children nutrition, Dr France Begin, said only 37 per cent of children aged six months and under in lower and middle income countries are exclusively breastfed, with women worldwide failing to receive the support they need to start or continue the practice.

Dr Begin further said women in poorer countries tend to breastfeed for longer time than those in higher-income countries, saying as income increases; mothers tend abandon breastfeeding with substitute milk.

“Lancet’s evidence will help communities advocates push their governments to improve policies, and above all hold governments to account for their actions, making sure the policies lead to more support for new mothers and better health for their newborns,” she said.

Expounding further she said if breastfeeding was scaled up to near universal levels, the authors found, 823,000 deaths of children below five could be prevented every year.