Breastfeeding As A Lifeline -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

The world breastfeeding week is celebrated annually between August 1st and 7th. More than ever, it is important that attention is  turned to a practice that could save millions of the youngest lives every year.

Breastfeeding is simply the easiest and most familiar exercise for newborns. The urge to feed, to be nourished, is as old as life itself.

Proper nourishment is too significant to be put into words. It is one of the reasons food insecurity is one of the most pressing problems today.

In many parts of the world, conflict has continued to drive food insecurity, shaping a world that is as angry as it is hungry.

For newborns, when they leave the sanctuary that the womb is, they  immediately confront the biting need that nutrition is. Because at that point they are completely dependent on their mothers, the importance of feeding them properly can never be overemphasized.

Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival. However, contrary to the World Health Organization’s recommendations, fewer than half of infants under 6 months old are exclusively breastfed.

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 requires 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.

Breastfed children perform better on intelligence tests, are less likely to be overweight or obese and less prone to diabetes later in life. Women who breastfeed also have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers.

Inappropriate marketing of breast-milk substitutes continues to undermine efforts to improve breastfeeding rates and duration worldwide.

For newborns and their mothers, the benefit of breastfeeding for their health in the long-term and short term are almost unquantifiable. Apart from the undoubted health benefits, there are also usually a host of emotional benefits.

This means that breastfeeding should be encouraged.

Kaduna State is currently mulling in a legislation to support women to exclusively  breastfeed their basis for the first six months of their lives. To encourage this further, working women will be given a paid leave.

That is certainly the way to go. To encourage something that has proven as valuable as breastfeeding, policy must morph into legislation for maximum results.

As a country, infant and maternal mortality remain dangerously high. Too many women and children continue to die carelessly and needlessly because of entirely preventable,

Breastfeeding can reduce the high mortality rate and should be encouraged.  Encouraging breastfeeding should be wholistic.

Encouraging breastfeeding wholistically  means shedding the stigma which stubbornly sticks to breastfeeding in some quarters.

Encouraging breastfeeding and getting  maximum benefits out of the ancient practice is also a matter of gender equality according to Sustainable Development Goal 5. Creating safe spaces for women and especially encouraging their sexual health and reproductive rights will give breastfeeding the shot in the arm that it needs.

This is a lot of work but when done properly, it is also many benefits.

It is important that family life is encouraged. Breastfeeding can help with this too. Furthermore, It is vital  that the health of women and their children are supported. This is also   a matter of life and death.

It is sad to see that Nigeria remains a country where women and children remain very much a vulnerable group, one which is prone to all kinds of risks.

For example, Nigeria remains the country with the third-highest maternal mortality rate in the world. This suggests the level of risk which women face in giving birth to  children.

Children also remain disproportionately at risk in a country with such grand aspirations as Nigeria. Many children die before they are five, often avoidably.

Breastfeeding is a natural way to curb infant  mortality while providing a whole range of benefits. It would be tragic if Nigeria does not initiate policies and legislations to support this practice which supports life itself.

Ike Willie-Nwobu,

Ikewilly9@gmail.com