A medical practitioner with the Delta StatePrimary
Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Winful Gbubemi, has called on government to
strengthen the compliance in building crèches for working nursing mothers.

Gbubemi said in an interview with The Tide in Asaba that the
establishment of crèches in public and private establishments would encourage
mothers to adequately breast-feed their babies.

He said that if employers became more baby friendly by
building crèches for nursing mothers, their babies would become healthier and
productivity would increase.

“We advise the employers to be more baby friendly by
establishing crèches near where workers are so that nursing mothers can easily
breast-feed their babies within a short time.

“This is so because the crèches are closer and the mother
can swiftly do the breast-feeding of the babies and return to work,’’ Gbubemi
said.

He called on husbands and other relatives to support nursing
mothers to adequately breast-feed their babies because of the great benefits
that it ensures for the entire family, and
explained that a healthy child, who had been properly breast-fed, would
not be in and out of hospitals.

He also encouraged women to breast-feed their children even
beyond two years, especially as a means of family planning and to create
greater bonding between the mother and the child noting that the practice of
breast-feeding was more in the rural areas which were more or less a culture
for the rural women to breast feed their babies for a longer period.

“But when you come to the urban areas, the awareness is
there but the practice of exclusive breast-feeding for six months is not as
good because of urban worries.

He urged mothers to frequently breast-feed their babies,
adding that the notion that breast-feeding could make the breast to fall or sag
was not correct, since according to him, mothers, especially the urban women,
know the importance of breast-feeding but for their attitude, it is difficult
to influence them even when the knowledge is there.

“In terms of cosmetics, apart from the breast, when you
breast-feed your child after delivery, the hormone that stimulates
breast-feeding also has an effect on the womb.

“It sort of contracts the womb so that there is less
breeding after delivery,’’ he said.

Gbubemi said the agency planned a sensitising rally for next
week, visit churches and mosques as well as give out prizes to mothers of best
baby friendly child to mark the World Breast Feeding Week.