World Breastfeeding Week: Group seeks more support for women

The Society for Family Health (SFH) has advocated improved environment and favorable policies to enable women to breastfeed and balance their work responsibilities successfully. Ibrahim Murtala-Mohammed, the Project Manager, SFH’s Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN), made the appeal during an event to commemorate 2023 World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) at Kudan Local Government, Kaduna State on Friday. He said that the appeal was imperative, considering the low indices of mothers practicing exclusive breastfeeding in Kaduna State.

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According to him, study shows that only 19 per cent of nursing mothers practice exclusive breastfeeding in the state.

Murtala-Mohammed noted that the figure signified high level of non-compliance to exclusive breastfeeding by nursing mothers in Kaduna, hence the campaign on exclusive breastfeeding with a view to preventing stunting and waste.

He also urged parents, especially fathers, to support their wives to exclusively breastfeed their babies, aged between zero and six months.

He further implored the government and key stakeholders to make breastfeeding and work complement each other through the provision of special spaces for lactating mothers in Islamic schools and workplaces to breastfeed their babies without hindrances.

“We are here in Kudan to celebrate the week by engaging the community on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding of their children from zero to six months and continuously breastfeeding till two years,’’ the project manager said.

In her remarks, Hajiya Hauwa Usman, A Nutrition Specialist, SFH, said one of the mandates of the society and ANRiN was to prevent child malnutrition through exclusive breastfeeding.

“We are working in all the 23 local government areas of the state, but we chose Kudan to commemorate the week with discussions on the adolescents, men and women. The discussions centered on the significance of exclusive breastfeeding. Most times, the emphasis is on married women and men; this time around, we are engaging the adolescents for proper awareness.”

However, WBW is celebrated every Aug.1 through Aug. 7 in commemoration of the 1990 Innocenti Declaration.

Wumi/NAN