Nursing Mothers Cautioned On Exclusive Breast Feeding

As Rivers State joins the rest of the world to observe the 2022 World Breast Feeding Week, some nursing mothers in Rivers State have cautioned their colleagues not to use poverty and hardship as an excuse against the practice of exclusive breastfeeding of their babies.

It would be recalled that some nursing mothers have cited poverty as factor responsible to practice exclusive breastfeeding of their babies.

Speaking, a mother of three from Okrika, Mrs Patience Owiriwa, said mothers have no excuse not to practice exclusive breastfeeding.

“I advise that as a mother, if you don’t have anything to feed a child, go for breast milk, even if it is little fish you buy to cook.

“That money you use for milk, use it to buy ‘Sungu’ and any good cooking things.

“If you buy N500 fish, you can cook soup that will carry you. When you are eating well, your baby is eating well too”, she said.

Owiriwa said exclusive breast milk prevents children from reacting to unnecessary sicknesses.

“He will be very OK. With breast milk, every vitamin is inside that breast milk; so, even if you feed him with only breast milk, he is good to go”.

Another respondent, Mrs Nnenna Amadi from Ikwerre Local Government Area said, “when you breast feed a child well, you find out that the baby will be OK.

“Moreover, when you do exclusive breastfeeding, the child will not be sick, he will be healthy and plump.

“The breast milk will make the child very sharp”, she said.

This year’s World Breastfeeding Week is from August 1 to 7, 2022.

The theme for this year’s event is: ‘Step Up For Breastfeeding: Educate and Support’.

It would be recalled that the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) had recommended that children be initiated to breastfeeding the first hour of birth and exclusively breastfed the first six months of life.

However, some nursing mothers, who spoke on the celebration in an interview said, poverty was hampering their effort to exclusively breastfeed their babies for the first six months of birth.

Accordingly, Esther Alaka, a nursing mother said, “you must eat well before you can give your babies breast.