World Breastfeeding Week (WBFW): Breastfeeding Plays An Important Role - UNICEF

World Breastfeeding Week (WBFW): Breastfeeding Plays An Important Role - UNICEF

August 6, 2021

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has tasked journalists to participate actively in sensitising the public on the importance of breastfeeding.

The engagement took place at a one-day media dialogue at Tahir Quest Palace, Kano, in commemoration of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week (WBFW).

Officer-in-Charge (OIC),UNICEF Field Office Kano, Michael Banda, gave the theme for the 2021 WBFW as ‘Protect Breastfeeding: A Shared Responsibility,’ explaining it focuses attention on the role everyone should play in supporting breastfeeding at all levels, including community and family levels, with special focus on reiteration of COVID-19 messages to enhance breastfeeding.

“Breastfeeding plays an important role in the life of the child so much that the first breast milk a child receives when he is born is indeed his immunisation as the colostrum in that first flow from the child’s mother contains immunity-conferring benefits on the child,” Banda said.

UNICEF Communication Specialist, Samuel Kaalu, who spoke on the objectives of the dialogue organised by UNICEF, in collaboration with Abubakar Rimi Television, said the meeting sought to inform journalists to focus on breastfeeding in their news stories and programmes.

Oluniyi Oyedokun, a nutrition specialist with UNICEF Kano Field Office, urged decision makers, mothers, caregivers and stakeholders to support breastfeeding and appropriate infant and young child feeding practices.

He disclosed that supporting, promoting and protecting breastfeeding from birth to the age of 23 months and beyond can reduce the high rates of infant and under-five mortalities in the country.

According to him a baby cannot even get infected with COVID-19 through the mother’s breast milk, adding that research shows the virus cannot be found in the breast milk.

Oyedokun said: “To date, active COVID-19 has not been detected in the breast milk of any mother with COVID-19, so it is unlikely that COVID-19 can be transmitted through breast milk.

“Mothers should continue breastfeeding with appropriate precautions which include wearing a medical mask if available, washing hands with soap and water before and after touching your baby, routinely cleaning and disinfecting surfaces you have touched.

“Your chest only needs to be washed if you have just coughed on it, otherwise, your breast does not need to be washed before every feeding.”

He noted that the challenges of child survival are enormous, with poor infant and young child feeding practices as a major factor responsible for millions of child’s deaths.

Oyedokun also cautioned against giving the baby water, disclosing that UNICEF and World Health Organisation (WHO) has in a joint statement declared that exclusive breastfeeding serves as the child’s first and most effective vaccine against malnutrition and all forms of diseases.