Breastfeeding Week: Dated wisdom, lactation stigma still assail mothers
- August 4, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Breastfeeding Week: Dated wisdom, lactation stigma still assail mothers
Subject: Science and technology
Section: Health
Context:
- World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is celebrated every year from August 01 to August 07 in remembrance of the Innocenti Declaration from 1990. Since 2016, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been in sync with WBW.
Innocenti declaration:
- In 1990 the Innocenti Declaration on the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding set an international agenda with ambitious targets for action.
- The Innocenti Declaration reflected both the spirit of the support that was being mobilized for breastfeeding, and the recognition of the right of the infant to nutritious food enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Stigma surrounding lactation
- Exclusively breastfeeding a child for six months is the best way to ensure infants are nourished, according to the World Health Organisation.
- It is one of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals for health.
- The first milk, the colostrum, is thought to be nutrient-rich and full of antibodies good for the child.
- In India, most women are guided by the older women in their families on what to expect during childbirth and how to care for their children. However, even those older women don’t have a good scientific basis for their knowledge.
What is good enough?
- In physiological terms, the milk let-down reflex causes a mother to lactate freely when stimulated by her baby’s suckling and oxytocin, a hormone released when the mother feels bonded to her child.
- The natural supplements like galactogogues – plant-based substances that increase milk production. But no studies support their effectiveness.
- With inadequate feeding, the baby may face the problem of being underweight or having weak immunity, and postpartum depression.
Alternate options:
- A 2018 survey found that almost 70% of mothers have problems with breastfeeding – but unfortunately there aren’t many nutritious alternatives to breast milk.
- Breastmilk is a nutrition-dense substance with bioactive agents that develop an infant’s gut, immunity as well as brain.
- The World Health Organisation recommends that cow’s milk or goat’s milk should never be given to infants.
- Human breast milk banks – of which there are some 90 around India – offer another viable alternative.