Supporting mothers for effective breastfeeding
The process of raising a child should be seen as an investment and not a means of procreating alone. In order to get the right returns, it is important to get it right from conception to the period of delivery and beyond. Once parents see their children as investments, they will protect them, create time for them, and the society at large will in turn help in protecting these investments.
One of the ways of protecting these investments is through proper breastfeeding. In fact, there is a worldwide alliance on breastfeeding as a means of effectively nurturing a child to become a mentally and emotionally stable individual in the community and the world at large.
Breastfeeding is as old as mankind and was considered as the norm from ancient times – until perhaps the 18th century when civilisation and the downturn in the economy necessitated that women should seek jobs outside the home. This has contributed in no small measure to the apathy of mothers towards exclusive breastfeeding. Subsequently, mothers in urban centres began dispensing with breastfeeding due to work requirement. But the practice declined significantly from 1900-1960 due to improved sanitation, nutritional technologies and increasingly negative social attitude towards it.
Miraculously, from the 1960s onward, breastfeeding experienced a revival which continues till date, probably due to the massive public enlightenment of mothers on its importance by United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) through the various home governments across the world. Before this miraculous revival, a large number of modern-day women had the belief that engaging in the process caused the breasts to sag, an insinuation that is nowhere near the truth.
In human anatomy, women’s breasts are made up of specialised tissue that produces milk, which is known as glandular tissue as well as fatty tissue. It is the amount of fat in the fatty tissue that determines the size of the breast while the shape is determined by connective tissues and ligaments that provide support. The milk-producing part is organised into 15-20 sections called lobes within which are smaller structures called lobules where milk is produced. The milk then travels through tiny tubes called ducts which connect and come together into larger ducts that exit in the nipples. The breast also contains blood vessels, lymph vessels and lymph nodes.
Breast milk contains the right balance of nutrients to help infant grow into a strong and healthy toddler. Colostrum, the yellowish, sticky breast milk produced after the delivery of a baby and the end of pregnancy, is recommended by the WHO as the perfect food for the newborn. It is very nutritious and contains substances that fight infection, although it is a common practice among some mothers to express this milk with the belief that it is dirty due to its colour. It is expected that breastfeeding should commence in the first hour after birth, and thereafter frequent sucking by baby to increase milk production should be encouraged. And since it is readily available and affordable, it is believed that all mothers can breastfeed except in cases of ill-health and defects like inverted, flat or pierced nipples which could make breastfeeding difficult. But with recommendations of obstetricians and paediatricians, adopted methods for breastfeeding can be worked out which could be in form of expressing the breast milk into a cup through the use of a specially made breast pump.
From the foregoing, it is important that babies are breastfed exclusively for a period of six months and subsequently appropriate complementary foods should be introduced up to two years of age and beyond. In the olden days in Africa, children were breastfed for a period of three years.
The benefits of breastfeeding to the mother, child and society at large are unquantifiable. Breast milk supplies all necessary nutrients needed for baby’s growth in the right proportion and the right temperature and also protects the infant from infections and illnesses like diarrhoea and vomiting. It keeps baby well hydrated and promotes proper teeth and speech development in later years of the child’s development. It establishes emotional bonding between mother and child and helps protects the former from the risks of breast and ovarian cancer. Breastfeeding helps the wall of the uterus to return to its normal shape in mothers that exclusively engage in it. And the society will benefit from a mentally stable and physically strong individual.
Therefore, as countries across the globe celebrate the World Breastfeeding Week 2013 (August 1-7) with the theme “Breastfeeding Support Close to Mothers”, emphasis should be placed on positioning the women at the centre of support coming from their immediate families, the communities and the governments at various levels. They should know the importance of the process and the support they can get from their surroundings towards achieving this.
The immediate family members, especially husbands, should provide moral and material support for their wives in order to go through the process of breastfeeding without stress. This support can be in form of good and nutritious foods that will make the mothers healthy enough to breastfeed or by being extra loving and caring to motivate the wife. This is so because breastfeeding itself comes with some challenges which can make any woman irritable. These challenges include breast engorgement, which is rampant during the first month of childbirth when the baby’s mouth is not strong enough to suck effectively, and pierced nipples caused by incessant sucking and mastitis (painful swelling of the breast). Recently, a national newspaper carried a story of a young man who beat his 17-year-old wife to death because she refused to breastfeed their set of twins. If the man had been enlightened on how to show empathy and other roles he is entitled to play as a father when his wife is breastfeeding a baby, he would not have committed such a heinous crime.
On the part of the community, the mothers should be supported by making the environment suitable for breastfeeding. For instance, farmers and traders in the community can form an alliance towards providing good and affordable food and at cheaper prices. Government at various levels should intensify public enlightenment campaign on the importance of breastfeeding. For instance, students in both primary and secondary schools, who are referred to as change agents, can be sensitised and they in turn will pass on the torch in their various homes and communities. The private sector, especially those engaged in the production of infant formula, must be made to introduce products that will aid or complement breastfeeding when the child is over 6 months. Most importantly, all stakeholders on the issue of breastfeeding should unite and make the process worthwhile for our women.
Bakare is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.
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