THE importance of breastfeeding infants has been highlighted in various national dailies on Friday to mark the observance of World Breastfeeding Week. The event is being observed annually to familiarize breastfeeding as very highly beneficial to mother and child as milk from mothers’ breast contains essential vitamins, minerals and fats which are vital for the child’s physical and mental growth. It helps develop immune system of the baby and strengthens the immune system of the mother as well. So the emphasis is that every mother should breastfeed her baby for the first six months. The child will miss out a lot of nutritional value if he or she misses breastfeeding. Breastfeeding can help develop a healthy nation.
But the practice of denial of breastfeeding is also widespread globally, because many mothers don’t want it on a taboo that it may destroy their body shape or that they are working women and it is not always possible to give companion to the baby. They prefer infant formula which is available under various brands name in the market.
In Bangladesh, the awareness is growing fast about the benefit of breastfeeding although mothers in many urban families still prefer giving infant formula to her child instead of breastfeeding.
Scientific studies have proven that any amount of breastfeeding has a positive effect as the longer a baby lives on breastfeeding, the longer the baby will develop protection from within. Unfortunately in our society and culture, mothers often feel shy because they can’t expose them in presence of others and also feel uncomfortable to hide the feeding under any cover. They have to sneak to a dirty bathroom or elsewhere to try to please others’ ideas of modesty which makes breastfeeding difficult. In the countryside most mothers however nourish the baby with breastfeeding. For poverty many mothers cannot get enough nutrient to remain healthy for adequate breastfeeding. Social organisation can come to the help of such mothers.
In our view physicians must tell the father and the expecting mother of the baby about the benefits of breastfeeding before the baby is born so that they can rethink of the entire matter. On this occasion we believe that more vigorous campaign should be launched involving stakeholders in the government and non-government organizations (NGOs) to make the benefits of breastfeeding widely familiarize to all. Our NGOs are doing good business in one way or other, but they are not as devoted as they should be to the cause.
