The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have called on governments, donors, civil society and the private sector to step up efforts to ensure a supportive breastfeeding environment for all working mothers, including those in the informal sector.
In a joint statement to mark this year’s World Breastfeeding Week, the UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russel and WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, observed that in the last 10 years, many countries have made significant progress to increase exclusive breastfeeding rates. The duo also contend that greater progress is achievable when breastfeeding is protected and supported in the work place.
The World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated annually from August 1-7 to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies in the world. The commemoration of the week-long event dates back to 1990s when the WHO and UNICEF created the Innocenti Declaration to promote and support breastfeeding.
This year’s World Breastfeeding Week was anchored on the theme: “Let’s make breastfeeding at work, work.” The theme emphasises the need for greater breastfeeding support in all work places to sustain and improve progress on breastfeeding rates globally.
The UN agencies point out that from the earliest moments of a child’s life, breastfeeding is the ultimate child survival and development intervention. According to them, “breastfeeding protects babies from common infectious diseases and boosts children’s immune systems, providing the key nutrients children need to grow and develop to their full potential.” They also hold that “babies who are not breastfed are 14 times more likely to die before they reach their first birthday than babies who are exclusively breastfed.”
According to medical experts, breast milk provides ideal nutrition for babies. This is probably why most healthcare professionals recommend exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months or much longer. Breast milk contains important antibodies that help babies to fight off viruses and bacteria. Breast milk also reduces the babies’ disease risk.
Apart from ensuring the cognitive development of babies, breastfeeding is both healthy to the babies and their mothers. It increases the bonding between mothers and babies as well. Breastfeeding makes mothers to recover quickly after child’s birth.
Unfortunately, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in Nigeria is 29 per cent. This means that over 70 per cent of infants in Nigeria are denied the benefits of adequate breastfeeding. The government must change this ugly narrative. According to 2021 statistics by WHO, globally, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding is 40 per cent. In Africa, nearly 70 per cent of countries have high rates of continued breastfeeding at one year, compared to 28.7 per cent prevalence in Nigeria. This, therefore, underscores the need to increase exclusive breastfeeding in the country.
We call on the government to enunciate policies and programmes that will promote and encourage exclusive breastfeeding in formal and informal sectors. Since hunger and poverty have been identified as barriers to effective exclusive breastfeeding in the country, the federal, state and local governments must work together to address the challenges of hunger and poverty.
In fact, local governments should lead the campaign for exclusive breastfeeding in the work environment, as most Nigerian women and nursing mothers live in the rural communities. For mothers to breastfeed their babies well, they too need adequate nutrition. Therefore, the government should give nursing mothers incentives and palliatives to support exclusive breastfeeding.
We believe that providing jobs for women, especially nursing mothers and their husbands can go a long way to address the country’s rising poverty, which has affected over 133 million Nigerians. The new administration should strive to lift the 133 million multi-dimensional poor Nigerians out of poverty.
Besides, the government should create awareness on the need for breastfeeding in the work places, especially in the informal sector, where exclusive breastfeeding is abysmally low. The period for maternity leave should be increased to support adequate breastfeeding. At the same time, we urge schools and companies to build standard crèches for nursing mothers to breastfeed their babies.
Similarly, worship centres and other social centers should provide breastfeeding rooms for breastfeeding women. Let the government provide sufficient paid leave to all working mothers to meet the needs of their babies. It should also increase investments in breastfeeding support policies and programmes. We also call for a national policy that that will promote and encourage breastfeeding in the work place.