As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark this year’s World Breastfeeding Day, the government says only 9% of organizations have a workplace for breastfeeding policy and this calls for serious, thoughtful actions.
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The Nigerian government said it was recommending early initiation of breastfeeding within an hour of birth, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, continued breastfeeding up to two years of age or beyond, with the introduction of appropriate complementary food as from six months.
It also emphasised that workplaces should be made conducive to encourage breastfeeding as this would enhance productivity for the mother while assuring their nurturing role.
The government however made these recommendations as this week heralds the 2023 World Breastfeeding Week, a yearly global campaign that aims to increase awareness on the health and wellbeing of infants, young children, mothers, families and the society at large.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Mr Adebiyi Folorunsho made this known during the flag off/press briefing ceremony to mark this year’s World Breastfeeding week in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
The day is a global campaign to raise awareness and generous support to improve breastfeeding practices for good health and wellbeing outcomes of infants, young children and mothers.
The Nigerian Ministry of Health said in collaboration with its Partners would join the rest of the world to observe this week from the 1st to 7th of August, 2023 and urging all citizens to encourage breastfeeding by making a difference for working parents.
The Permanent Secretary noted that breastfeeding was highly beneficial to children, mothers, families and communities as well as respite provides all the energy and nutrients that the infant needs for the first month of life.
“It promotes healthy brain development, and is essential for preventing the triple burden of malnutrition, infectious diseases and mortality, while also reducing the risk of obesity and chronic diseases in later life. Mothers also benefit from breastfeeding as it protects them against chronic diseases including ovarian cancer, types two diabetes and cardiovascular disease”, he said.
Mr Folorunsho said that breastfeeding improved the well being of mothers and children, positively impacts households by providing food security, since family resources could be redirected to secure food for the household, reduce health care cost, hospital visits reduction, higher productivity in the workplace benefit from breastfeeding, employees who are supported to breastfeed show greater commitment and higher productivity at work.
In her speech, the Chairperson of the Nigerian Governors Wife Forum and the wife of the Kwara state governors, Ambassador Olufolake Abdulrazaq said they recognized the challenges faced by working parents, especially working mothers, in striking a balance between their professional responsibilities and providing the best possible care for their children.
Ambassador Abdulrazaq explained that Breastfeeding plays an integral role in the healthy development of infants and they must all come together to create an enabling environment that supports and encourages this natural and essential practice.
The Forum Chairperson said: “At the Nigerian governor’s wife’s forum, we are all not only dedicated to championing the cause of breastfeeding and improving the lives of mothers and children across our nation, we are proud to announce that the Nigerian governor’s wife’s forum had taken a significant step forward by signing a statement of commitment to provide support through effective advocacy for improved nutrition in the country. And this commitment has five pillars
“Encouraging home and school gardening as part of the operation feed yourself initiative of the federal government of Nigerian, creating awareness on the importance and benefits of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, and hampioning advocacies for the implementation of six months paid maternity leave, which can be four months leave with pay and two months of remote work across the 36 states” she added.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Chief of Nutrition in Nigeria, Nemat Hajeebhoy who congratulated all the mothers in Nigeria for breastfeeding, said over 90% of mothers in Nigeria had embraced breastfeeding and that was absolutely amazing.
“But as we know, we want mothers and babies to be optimally breastfed. This means children need to be breastfed within the first hour, given only breast milk for the first six months, nothing else no water, no food, , and then from six months onwards, they need to be continued to be breastfed for 24 months before food diversity is added to the diets”. She said.
She therefore encouraged government, families, religious leaders, and community leaders to provide six months paid maternity leave so that mothers could be with their babies, could nourish them well and also recover from their pregnancy and childbirth.
The global theme for this year’s World Breastfeeding Week is ‘Enable Breastfeeding, making a Difference for Working Parents’.
