{"id":7543,"date":"2013-08-01T23:39:45","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T23:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/who-urges-paternity-leave-nigeria-laments-dropping-breast-feeding-rate\/"},"modified":"2013-08-01T23:39:45","modified_gmt":"2013-08-01T23:39:45","slug":"who-urges-paternity-leave-nigeria-laments-dropping-breast-feeding-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/who-urges-paternity-leave-nigeria-laments-dropping-breast-feeding-rate\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO urges paternity leave, Nigeria laments dropping breast-feeding rate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2022 Breast-feeding, effective way of saving child, says UNICEF<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE World Health Organisation (WHO) in Abuja Thursday made a fresh call for a law to enable a father take time off work to be with his wife and new baby.<\/p>\n

  The call is coming as the Federal Government raised the alarm that the rate of exclusive breast-feeding is again dropping, putting the infant child at the risk of killer diseases.<\/p>\n

   Speaking at 2013 World Breast Feeding Week flag-off in Abuja by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. A. L. Mbene, who represented Country Director, stressed that WHO supports paternity leave as a deliberate way of assisting the mother and child during the infant stage.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThough rare, we think that the time has come for it across the world. We also support the establishment of cr\u00e8ches in offices where mothers can go and feed the baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

  At the occasion, Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu lamented that the rate at which mothers obey the exclusive breast feeding policy was dropping and called for urgent attention to support mothers and the children to optimal exclusive breastfeeding practices.<\/p>\n

   This year\u2019s World Breastfeeding Week has as theme: \u201cBreastfeeding support: Close to mothers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cToo often a time, it has been observed that in the course of exclusive breastfeeding, there is always a sharp decline in sustaining the tempo a few weeks by mothers after delivery. This sharp decline underscores the importance of the theme, which emphasises breastfeeding peer counseling as a cost effective and highly productive way of reaching large number of mothers more frequently. The period when mothers do not visit a healthcare facility is the time when a community support system for mothers is essential. Trained peer counselors, readily available in the community become the lifeline for mothers with breastfeeding challenges. The key to best breastfeeding practices is continued day-to-day support breastfeeding mother in her home and community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith continuation of training peer counselors and in addition to those already trained in most communities across the country, I have no doubt in my mind that Nigeria is on the track of ensuring early initiation of breastfeeding within 30 minutes after delivery and promoting exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. This, if adequately followed with the introduction of adequate and safe complementary foods at the six months of life and continued breastfeeding for up to two years and beyond, the suboptimal infant and young child feeding practices resulting to malnutrition will be averted.<\/p>\n

  United Nations Children\u2019s Fund (UNICEF) also described breastfeeding as the most effective and inexpensive way of saving a child\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Geeta Rao Gupta said:  \u201cBut with less than half of all children under six months benefitting from exclusive breastfeeding, strong leadership in promoting the practice is essential.<\/p>\n

 \u201cThere is no other single health intervention that has such a high impact for babies and mothers as breastfeeding and which costs so little for governments. Children who are exclusively breastfed are 14 times more likely to survive the first six months of life than non-breastfed children. Starting breastfeeding in the first day after birth can reduce the risk of new-born death by up to 45 per cent.<\/p>\n

 \u201cBreastfeeding also supports a child\u2019s ability to learn and helps prevent obesity and chronic diseases later in life. Recent studies in the United States and United Kingdom point to large health care savings resulting from breastfeeding, given that breastfed children fall ill much less often than non-breastfed children,\u201d Gupta said.<\/p>\n

  According to UNICEF Deputy Executive Director,  \u201cApart from the benefits to the baby, mothers who breastfeed exclusively are less likely to become pregnant in the first six months following delivery, recover faster from giving birth, and return to their pre-pregnancy weight sooner. Evidence shows that they experience less post-partum depression and also have a lower risk of ovarian and breast cancers later in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

  In a bid to boost such low rates UNICEF and the National Centre for Women\u2019s and Children\u2019s Health in May launched a \u201c10m2of Love\u201d campaign to locate, register, certify and publicise breastfeeding rooms in order to raise awareness and support for breastfeeding.<\/p>\n

 The campaign has established a web portal (unicef.cn\/10m2) where any organisation can register breastfeeding rooms for staff, patrons or customers that adhere to simple international standards. A mobile phone application to map the locations of all 10m2of Love facilities is under development.<\/p>\n

  Cambodia has had notable success in raising exclusive breastfeeding rates from 11.7 per cent of infants less than six months in 2000 to a very high 74 per cent in 2010. Togo and Zambia also increased the rates from 10 and 20 per cent respectively in the late 1990s to over 60 per cent by 2000.<\/p>\n

  At the other end of the scale, Tunisia\u2019s exclusive breastfeeding rate fell dramatically from 46.5 per cent in 2000 to only 6.2 per cent by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

   The exclusive breastfeeding rate in Indonesia is declining; Nigeria has made no improvement over many years; and some of the lowest rates in the world are in Somalia, Chad and South Africa.<\/p>\n

Such examples reflect insufficient global leadership on breastfeeding, as it continues to be undervalued relative to its importance in the life of child. There needs to be higher prioritization and commitment, targeted policies and greater consensus to engage the world in promoting this life-saving and vital practice.<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: Guardian Newspaper<\/p>\n

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