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To mark the World Breastfeeding Week which started August 1 and ends August 7, nutritionists at the ministry of Health are encouraging Ugandans to talk more about breastfeeding.
Joseph Odyek, of the nutrition department at the Ministry says: “We would love to see Ugandans talk about breastfeeding in places beside hospitals. They should talk about breastfeeding at work or any place else”.
This year the ministry is particularly targeting the youth. An Open Day, where the youth will be given information about the importance of breastfeeding, will take place this Saturday at UMA Lugogo show grounds.
“The youth have been largely ignored in the matter of breastfeeding yet we know that girls aged between 16 and 21 are getting children. There is need to engage them,” Odyek says.
However, even if the youth are the point of focus this year, health experts continue to urge mothers to breastfeed more. Breastfeeding has both short and long term benefits. According to a factsheet on the website www.suite101.com, breastfeeding boosts the babies’ immunity.
Ruth Musisi, a mother of two says on the website that, “My children did not fall ill in their infanthood. This is because I was breastfeeding them. They have only started falling sick when my older daughter started school.”
Research shows that among other benefits, breastfeeding protects babies from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), allergies, asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal infections and urinary infections.
And the advantages do not stop at the baby alone. A mother benefits too because breastfeeding enables her to lose weight gained during pregnancy. Musisi says: “I do not work out after giving birth. I breastfeed and that is how I lose weight.”
Breastfeeding also enables mother and child to bond. Working mothers are often afraid of not being able to bond with their children and experts advise them to breastfeed to break this fear. Prevention of pregnancy and ovarian and breast cancer are some of the other benefits that a mother gets from breastfeeding.
“In fact, breast milk is not “ideal” but the normal, natural food for babies, adapted over millions of years to meet their unique nutritional and immunological needs.”
This article first appeared in the observer newspaper
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