Support working mothers to breastfeed — UNICEF
UNICEF in Ghana has called for supportive policies and comprehensive programmes to optimise the benefits promised by exclusive breastfeeding.
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It enumerated the policies and programmes needed to include protection from the inappropriate marketing of breast milk substitutes, adequate maternity protection regulations, the availability of skilled health providers and community workers, and culturally sensitive education and communication.
According to UNICEF, breastfeeding gives children the best start in life and studies have shown that investing in breastfeeding has a high rate of returns across national health, education and financial sectors.
However, it said, in Ghana, modest gains made in the last two decades of exclusively breastfeeding infants had declined, adding that currently about 52 per cent of babies were exclusively breastfed.
Risk
In a statement issued to celebrate this year’s World Breastfeeding Week, UNICEF said babies who were not breastfed had a higher risk of illnesses and death than those that were breastfed.
“They also face long-term physical, educational and economic setbacks. For working mothers, a baby’s right to breastfeed can be interrupted or hindered by a nursing mother’s limited chances to combine breastfeeding with work due to lack of adequate support,” it added.
This year’s World Breastfeeding Week, it therefore said, was calling attention to the challenges women faced combining work with breastfeeding and urged all governments and stakeholders to give women in the formal and informal sectors the support needed to succeed.
“Co-workers, employers, families and communities need to create and foster a dignified, enabling environment that allows working mums to do their work, to breastfeed and thus, do the best for their children,” said Ms Sarah Hague, UNICEF Representative Officer in Charge.
Advantages
UNICEF said breastfeeding infants and children improved their chances of survival and had benefits also for maternal health. It guarantees an optimal brain development, longer school attendance and a higher IQ; ultimately research has shown that investing in breastfeeding will position the child for a higher earning ability in the future.
It added that working mothers must be supported to access benefits such as paid leave as well as a conducive environment where breastfeeding breaks were allowed.
While the focus of support seems to benefit mother and child, it said there were immense benefits to the community and the nation as a whole.
UNICEF added that of all the life-saving interventions for infants, breastfeeding had the most impact and was also the most cost-effective, saying that when a population with limited access to health systems and infrastructure relies on breastfeeding, it mitigates inequities in access to health services.
It said breastfeeding could save health care systems significant resources due to reduced illness among breastfed babies.
UNICEF, therefore, said together with its partners it would continue to support the government’s effort at improving the health of mothers and children, as well as providing the needed investment to provide children with a better and fairer chance to survive and thrive.