Save the Children International (SCI) has revealed that only 29% of infants aged 0-6 months are exclusively breastfed in Nigeria, leaving 71% of infants lacking the benefits of breast milk in their formative years.
To this end, the organisation called for a review of laws and measures that deprive lactating mothers the opportunity to practice exclusive breastfeeding both at formal and informal settings.
The Country Director, SCI Nigeria, Famari Barro, stated this in a statement issued Tuesday in commemoration of World Breastfeeding Week (1-7 August 2023) with the theme “Enabling Breastfeeding, Making a difference for Working Parents”.
Exclusive breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant with only breastmilk for the first 6 months of the child’s life without water or formula as directed by the World Health Organization.
This is ideal for the child as breast milk contains nutrients and antibodies that protect the child from common illnesses.
Barrow said: “Nigeria falls short on this mandate as only 29% of infants aged 0-6 months are exclusively breastfed leaving 71% of infants lacking the benefits of breast milk in their formative years. Only 9% of organizations have a workplace breastfeeding policy.”
He stressed that his organisation considers the lack of exclusive breastfeeding for children of working class women in any sector as a disservice to the right of the child to survive.
“A child deprived of exclusive breastfeeding can suffer malnutrition, pneumonia, infectious morbidity, childhood obesity, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, leukemia, and sudden infant death syndrome,” Barro added.
He lamented that one of the challenges of exclusive breastfeeding is the return to work of breastfeeding mothers after barely 18 weeks of maternity leave.
The country director stressed that the Nigeria workspace forces mothers to return to work or risk their salaries or income.
Barro noted, “Children across Nigeria must be fed well, solely on exclusive breastmilk for the first 6-months of their lives. In an emergency context, breastfeeding saves lives. When systems are disrupted, breastfeeding continues to offer nutrition security, hydration, comfort, connection, and protects babies from infectious diseases. .”
He stressed that government laws and policies must support and ensure an implementation of at least 18 weeks, or more 6 than months, paid maternity leave, promote exclusive breastfeeding; public health campaigns, provision of adequate nutrition and breastfeeding counselling, so that parents everywhere and at all levels can access the appropriate services and support that are critical to the success of breastfeeding.
The organisation maintained that the six months paid maternity leave and 2 weeks paternity leave bill should be passed and signed into law to provide sustainable support for breastfeeding from the government.