World’s Breastfeeding week: 1st to 7th August 2021

The world is bound together with a bond called love. A mother is the real meaning of love; the way she shares her connection with her kid is incomparable. In this whole universe, the only genuine and pure connection is between a mother and her kid. The love begins when she learns that she will have her own love shadow after nine months. This connection is felt by her when she starts breastfeeding her child.

This skin-to-skin touch and the act of sucking creates emotional bonding between a child and a mother. It not only discovers the new feeling of parenting but also helps to strengthen the baby through the required nutrients. 

World’s Breastfeeding Week: An Insight

The World Health Organisation every year celebrates a week on the name of “World’s Breastfeeding Week.” This is celebrated every year on the first week of August, i.e., from 1 August to 7 August. This week completely shares the awareness and the benefits of breastfeeding to both mother and child. 

However, every mother should exclusively breastfeed their babies for at least six months of their lives. This plays an important role in a healthy life of a child.

Why do we celebrate the world’s breastfeeding week?

With the developing environment, we people have developed a habit of adapting to new things easily without even realizing the importance of traditional practices. Breastfeeding is one among them, this process connects the soul of a mother and a child, but random commercial products in the market which just tend to work like mother milk have changed the mindset of many people. Because of this, they have reduced the breastfeeding process. To make them realize the importance of breastfeeding and the emotional connection between a mother and a child, we celebrate this breastfeeding week with the help of the Government. 

The main ambition for this breastfeeding week is to create awareness of breastfeeding among people and make them realize the benefits of breastfeeding on mothers and their children for their safety.

Why has Breastfeeding stopped?

Breastfeeding is a life-giving practice and a symbol of maternity. Mothers are a source of inspiration and reverence all over the world throughout the ages. A mother sets an actual definition of devotion, feeling of love, warmth, security, and stability by her child’s bonding. 

But nowadays with the increase of time, we all have made ourselves so busy that we don’t have enough time for our children and family. To maintain and live a good lifestyle, we are so stuck that we try to find quick and easy ways to wind up our responsibilities. This behavior of escaping from the responsibilities is why we are evolving emotional attachments with our children and family. 

Let us look at some facts and figures

Breastfeeding is also a mother’s responsibility towards her baby, but mothers don’t have enough time for it in today’s generation. Somehow, they lack to feel that strong emotional connection between a child and a mother. This is a reason why the breastfeeding rate is decreasing gradually. According to the National Immunization Survey, 84.1% of infants born started breastfeeding, and only 58.3% of infants were breastfeeding at six months. These percentages are decreasing gradually, for that, awareness programs are necessary. And apart from this reason, some people tend to believe in myths rather than truth. 

This creates a major barrier to breastfeeding practices implemented throughout the world. The natural nurturing process for the baby is though affected through these misconceptions. But don’t worry, The Curious Point will help you to overcome these misconceptions.

Here are some myths associated with breastfeeding which are dragging the people mentality:

• Breastfeeding can be a reason for breasts sag. 
• Breastfeeding shouldn’t be done in public.
• Formula milk is the same as breast milk.
• Breastfeeding is painful.
• Breastfeeding can’t be done without the proper shape and size of the breast.
• Babies don’t need breast milk once they start solid foods.
• Mothers realize it is troublesome to provide enough milk.
• It is natural for your nipples to hurt when you breastfeed.
• One shouldn’t breastfeed when they are sick.
• Women can’t get pregnant while they are breastfeeding.
• Breastfeeding can ruin the shape of the breast.

These are only myths, but in reality, these are not the cause because of breastfeeding. Therefore, the Government is trying its best to make the people aware of the importance of breast milk by celebrating World’s Breastfeeding Week. They are providing trained counselors and guides to guide the new mothers on breastfeeding and the proper process to carry out this smoothly. 

Benefits of Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is an emotion, and that’s the key point that creates bonding between a mother and her child. It’s the natural process that binds a mother to her child with love, care, and security. Apart from that, it is also beneficial for both of them.

Benefits of breastfeeding for a mother:

• For a woman, pregnancy is a long and life-changing experience that gives a new feeling of motherhood, and the act of breastfeeding feels this. Pregnancy brings about a lot of physical changes, which is a reason for the worry among mothers. But this worriedness can be controlled with the breastfeeding process. 
• The pregnancy weight gain can be reduced by the act of breastfeeding. If a mother maintains a constant milk supply to her baby, then it can help her to reduce her 500 calories in a day and can help her to reduce weight faster.
• Uterus Expands during pregnancy and helps in the accommodation of a growing baby in the womb. And after the baby’s birth, the uterus shrinks back to normal, and then by regular breastfeeding, the baby bump disappears slowly.
• Breastfeeding can help in reducing the flow rate of postpartum bleeding in a woman and reduce the pain associated with it.
• The risk of anemia and urinary tract infections can also be reduce through breastfeeding.
• Breastfeeding helps a mother emotionally to reduce stress, increase confidence, and instill positive feelings.
• Breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer and also decreases the occurrence of osteoporosis and arthritis.

Benefits of breastfeeding for a child:

• Mother milk or breast milk acts as a building block for a baby. Breastfeeding is a natural nurturing process, which is important for a child to grow strong and healthy. 
• Breastfeeding provides every nutrient and energy that is important for a child. It protects the child from infection, reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, and builds strong immunity for the rest of life.
• A mother, through breastfeeding, provides the immunoglobins IgA. It helps to build up immunity against several diseases during infancy, childhood, and even much later in life. 
• Breastfeeding for 18 months can help save the baby from various health issues like diarrhea, constipation, gastroenteritis, gastroesophageal reflux, and preterm necrotizing enterocolitis.
• Breastfeeding helps to reduce the risk of respiratory illnesses like pneumonia, respiratory syncytial virus, whooping cough. 
• It reduces the risk of ear infections and various other bacterial meningitis, retinopathy, of prematurity.
• Breastfeeding reduces the disorders like allergies, eczema, asthma, leukemia, lymphomas, lupus, Crohn’s disease by introducing the baby to the antibodies to defend himself from diseases. 

When does breastfeeding begin?

Just after the parturition process, the baby needs to be fed with mother milk immediately within one hour; this phase plays a vital role in a child’s life. Mother milk contains about 60-75kcal/100ml of energy and supplies plenty of proteins and vitamins like vitamin C to the baby. A baby gets immunoglobulins like IgA and IgG from mother’s milk which help to create antibodies to fight various diseases. A mother must know how to hold her baby to latch her better. she should know whether her baby can suck milk properly to get the nutrients.

While breastfeeding, she should learn the postures by which she can breastfeed smoothly with comfort. A baby needs to feed 8 to 12 times a day. So it’s necessary for a mother to make this a regular practice and should continue breastfeeding her baby for at least six months of life. 

Those mothers who cannot breastfeed their baby can produce their milk with a breast pump because of any problem. This milk from the mother can be stored at room temperature for up to six hours, refrigerated for up to eight days. Then through the help of a milk bottle, one can feed the baby.

When should breastfeeding be stopped?

As per medical instruction, a baby should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their life. Then, gradually after this period, their diet should be there with semi-solid and solid foods. And once the baby can digest these semi-solid and solid foods, a mother can reduce breastfeeding frequency.

After 18 months of baby birth, the nutritional value of breast milk decreases, so after that period, a mother can gradually decrease breastfeeding to her baby.

Breastfeeding shouldn’t be done if the mother suffers from any disease like HIV/AIDS, active tuberculosis, or taking any cancer chemotherapy medications or radiation therapy. 

If a baby can’t digest or tolerate breast milk, this condition is known as galactosemia; in this case, the baby shouldn’t be breastfed. 

Government steps and initiation towards breastfeeding

• Govt. have clearly stated about the breastfeeding policy.
• Organized various campaigns to promote the importance of breastfeeding.
• Celebrating breastfeeding week to create awareness among people.
• Supplied counselors to train the new mother to breastfeed properly.

Conclusion

Breastfeeding is an important process that helps celebrate boosts up the baby’s immunity and creates emotional bonding between a mother and a child. And the awareness program about breastfeeding should continue till it makes a positive and effective response from people. 

Though there is a huge influence of commercial baby food in the market, it still can not snatch the importance of mother milk, nor can it match the standard of proteinous nutrients that a mother’s milk can provide to her baby.

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