State House Medical Centre calls for laws to encourage breastfeeding

The State House Medical Centre in Abuja has urged government to enact laws that will compel organisations to create conducive environment for working mothers to exclusively breastfeed their babies.

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The Consultant Paediatrician, Dr Maryam Keshinro, made the call on Thursday in Abuja at a Baby Show organised by the centre to emphasise the importance of exclusive breastfeeding.

She said, government can make the workplace friendly for mothers by enacting laws and making sure that the laws are implemented and sustained.

“These laws should include the provision of breastfeeding rooms where there is no full-fledged crèche. There should be a room where mothers would feel free to go and breastfeed their babies.

“Government should also ensure that both private and public institutions keep to the policies,” she added.

The consultant paediatrician then narrated how the “Baby Show” came about, saying it started in 1998 following the adaptation of the State House Medical Centre as a baby-friendly hospital.

She said, the first baby show was conducted in August 1998 to emphasise the benefits of breastfeeding and to encourage mothers to not only breastfeed, but to sustain it up to at least two years.

Keshinro also said that the paternity leave, which became operational recently, affords fathers the ability to bond with their babies and to give them room to run around and get things done.

The hospital’s Head of Paedriatrics Department, Dr Rekiya Ahmed, said that the health facility has a special clinic that takes care of children right from pregnancy till when they are delivered, and then follow up until the babies reach two years.

Rekiya said, “We encourage exclusive breastfeeding and conduct demonstration and nutritional clinics. So at the end of a calendar year, we also invite mothers to further give them lectures and to assess how the children are doing.

“The baby show is to reward those babies and mothers that have excelled in all these activities.”

She commended the hospital management for providing a crèche and other baby-friendly facilities to support both babies and mothers.
She urged administrators of other establishments to provide conducive environment for breastfeeding working mothers to be able to successfully do exclusive breastfeeding.

The centre’s Head of Nursing Department, Mrs Taiwo Thompson, who spoke on some myths associated with breastfeeding, said the sagging of breasts is not due to breastfeeding.

According to her, the breast will eventually sag due to age with or without breastfeeding.

“So, it is even better to make them productive by giving your children and you will be proud that your baby suckled your breasts.

“It even has spiritual effects. When you want to pray, because you have breastfed your child, you can hold on to those breasts to pray for the child and it works.

“The idea of sagging is ignorance. After the baby is born, breastfeeding helps to make the body return to pre-pregnancy stage and the body will glow and it serves as protection against diseases.

“So, I will advise all mothers to practice exclusive breastfeeding, which is no other food or water except breast milk for the child in the first six months of life.”