Benefits of breastfeeding to both mother and child cannot be over emphasised as they last for a lifetime. However, Nigerian mothers face some challenges in their quest for adequate breastfeeding. Juliet Jacob Ochenje highlights some of them in this article.
According to the Ministry of Health, breastfed babies have stronger immunity, reduces the risk of infections and many childhood illnesses, and longer-term health benefits, including reduced risk of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence.
The benefits of breastfeeding to both mother and baby cannot be over emphasised. Studies have shown that obesity rates are 15-30% lower in breastfed babies, compared to formula-fed babies. Again, about 80,000 child deaths are reported to be prevented annually when optimal breastfeeding is practiced.
Breastfeeding provides huge health benefits to mothers. It helps to prevent post-partum bleeding, lowers the risk of breast and ovarian cancers, and many more. About 20,000 maternal deaths can be prevented annually when optimal breastfeeding is practiced.
According to the National Demographic and Health Survey, the early initiation rate of breastfeeding is 42%, which clearly shows that not up to half of Nigerian children are breastfed within one hour of birth.
Also, the exclusive breastfeeding rate in Nigeria is 29%, indicating that only a mere percentage of infants aged 0-6 months are exclusively breastfed, leaving a whopping 71% of infants not enjoying the benefits of breast milk in their formative years. It added that only 9% of organisations have a workplace breastfeeding policy.
A great challenge in Nigeria is that a good number of mothers and caregivers still don’t fully understand the importance of breastfeeding; neither do spouses, friends and families understand the need for adequate support for women to optimally breastfeed their babies.
This is why the celebration of the Breastfeeding Week is to inform and educate mothers on the benefits of breastfeeding, as well as galvanise more support from the government/legislation, family and social network, health care system, workplace and employment, as well as response to crisis and emergency management.
Some Challenges Facing Excluding Breastfeeding
The Federal Ministry of Health, World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recommend early initiation of breastfeeding within one 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 foods from six months.
The National Guidelines on the Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) has being reviewed to make it more holistic and encompass baby friendly services in the hospital, community and workplace. It is aimed at revitalising the baby friendly services in line with 2018 WHO’s new ten (10) steps to successful breastfeeding.
One of its goals is also to incorporate all programmes on breastfeeding as an integrated service delivery in routine services that pertains to breastfeeding at health facility, community and workplace.
But despite these measures, many women face challenges in their practice of breastfeeding. One of such women is a nursing mother of two, Mrs Mary Agogo, who gave AHR reasons that forced her to stop.
“I did exclusive breastfeeding for my first child but I couldn’t continue and I stopped at four months because my baby was always crying like breast milk was not enough for him, so I started giving him baby food. And me as a mother, I was not having the strength to continue, so I stopped.”
She further said: “For my second child who is just two months old, I am not doing exclusive breastfeeding for her because my husband lost his job recently and as a nursing mother, I will have to eat well before I can do exclusive breastfeeding for my child. So, I am not doing exclusive breastfeeding because of lack of funds and lack of food.”
Mrs Ruth John, who is a mother of three, while speaking on her experience, told AHR: “This my third child, I did exclusive breastfeeding on my first but there was some little challenges like I was always feeling dizzy and weak most of the time, so my doctor advised me to stop, so i started mixing with both breastfeeding and baby food.”
“For my last child, I made sure I did exclusive breastfeeding because of the health benefits; like it makes them to be smart and it also makes the baby to be strong.”
There is no known disadvantages of breastfeeding – Dr. Ikhu-Omoregbe
Dr. Roberts Osas Ikhu-Omoregbe of the Maitama District Hospital, Abuja, in a chat with African Health Report (AHR) on exclusive breastfeeding, noted that while there are numerous benefits to breastfeeding, there is no disadvantage related to it yet.
He said: “Baby friendly related initiative was established from its priceless or inestimable benefits. The bonding relationship that is established during breastfeeding, especially exclusive breastfeeding where the new baby is fed with only breast milk for the first six months without water, the only food gets to the baby’s mouth aside the breast would be immunisation or medication prescribed by the doctor.
“The same initiative was established years ago to announce or expand the need for mothers to give their children breast milk, exclusive breastfeeding, which means giving the baby just breast milk for the first six months without water or any other food.
“This kind of feeding has a lot of benefits to the child and the parents, and even the society at large, as far as the economy is concerned. After the first six months, the breastfeeding will continue for almost two years but this time, the feeding would include other food especially when the child’s teeth starts coming out.
“Food like pap, pottage, well cooked beans and rice can be given to the baby along with the breast milk. Breastfeeding has a lot of advantages to the mother and child, especially with the bonding relationship it creates between them.”
He continued: “Breastfeeding also prevents the mother of the child from bleeding as a result of child birth, it also prevent the mother from breast cancer and also from the risk of ovarian cancer. In some cases breast feeding goes as far as helping the parents with family planning in form of child spacing. To the baby, breastfeeding also helps to prevent early diseases like malaria, obesity, allergic reactions and other sickness because breast milk comes in a right proportion and temperature.
“It is also helps the parents from spending too much on feeding because breast milk is always available and it also helps to minimise stress like making baby food or boiling hot water and the rest. Because breast milk comes with the right proportion of nutrition, it has high nutritional value and finally, it serves as immunity against some diseases from childhood. There is no known disadvantages of breastfeeding.”
(All photos by Juliet Jacob Ochenje/AHR)
