RSG Selling Breastfeeding To Women

There are fears that breastfeeding may go extinct going by recent statistics of nursing mothers who breastfeed their new borns for at least six months.
Member of a committee on Breastfeeding Week at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), Nurse Aganah Ebirien told The Tide Metro that the campaign to raise awareness is across all health facilities in the state.
She expressed fear that, “there is a threat to breast feeding and it’s fading away.”
Nurse Ebirien who is popularly referred to as “Mama Breast” in RSUTH lamented that if nothing is done now many women may see breastfeeding as archaic.
“Studies have shown that many nursing mothers because of their work schedules and the obsession to look younger with standing breasts don’t give their babies breast milk” Ebirien observed.
She told The Tide Metro that these new posture of women about breast feeding are mostly “myths” and these myths are big barriers to embracing breastfeeding.
For this year, the theme “Step Up Breastfeeding, Educate and Support” is aimed at raising awareness and discouraging all forms of attitude that puts barrier to the culture of breast feeding.
Nurse Ebirien is miffed that many nursing mothers ignorantly do not know huge benefits of breast feeding. “One of the benefits is that it increases bonding between a baby and his mother.”
For her, it’s not enough to breastfeed but “exclusive breastfeeding” is key “When I mean exclusive breast feeding, I mean giving the baby only breast milk for the first six months without water or glucose water”.
She explained that apart from reducing financial burden on the family in the buying of infant formula milk, exclusive breast feeding boosts the brain and intelligence of babies.
In addition to that, she stressed that the immunity of the child is also fortified. “A child who is well breast fed hardly fall sick, and that too reduce expenses on family which results from medical treatment.
Ebirein pointed out that most often mothers throw away the first milk that drops from the breast called ‘colostrum’, that is the most beneficial and rich part of the breast milk, “In the past our grandmother threw it away,” she said.

By: Kevin Nengia