The World Health Organization (WHO) advises feeding babies with breast milk for the first six months of life and prolonging breastfeeding as a complement to solid food for up to two years or more.
In Spain , according to data from the National Health Survey published in 2018, at six months only 2 out of 5 children (43%) continue to be exclusively breastfed.
Supporting the mother is a key measure to prolong breastfeeding , which has so many benefits for the child. But there is more, as the slogan of World Lactation Week 2019 says: ‘Let’s empower ourselves, let’s make breastfeeding possible!’
Causes that lead to early abandonment of breastfeeding
The social and labor obstacles that mothers face, especially due to the reduction in time due to returning to work after maternity leave, are one of the main reasons that cause premature abandonment of breastfeeding in our country, some figures similar to the world average.
Thus, three out of four women (72%) breastfeed during the first month and a half after giving birth, a figure that drops six points at three months (66%), which means that one in three mothers who opted for breastfeeding, give up . At six months the decline is even more significant: only 47% of mothers continue to breastfeed their babies.
Hence, World Lactation Week 2019 seeks to achieve prolactation policies and legislation, support for motherhood by companies, and the implementation of equitable social norms related to gender equality , such as teamwork among mothers. and their partners, to prolong breastfeeding and thus benefit infants and mothers.
Because, as UNICEF assures, improving breastfeeding rates worldwide could save the lives of 820,000 children under five years of age each year , 87% of them under six months of age.
Medela is shown in the same sense, by ensuring that the empowerment of the mother and receiving the support of her closest environment contributes to increasing the rates of breastfeeding, improving the health status of the baby.
Keys to achieving prolonged breastfeeding
Medela, in its support for the empowerment of women, within the framework of World Lactation Week, gives us the guidelines to promote greater confidence of mothers in the chosen parenting model and the prolongation of breastfeeding.
1. Involve the mother’s environment
Supporting breastfeeding not only has benefits for the health of the mother and baby, it also helps mothers feel safe to breastfeed.
For this reason, it is essential that the mother’s environment, from her partner to the health personnel, is involved in the creation of adequate and positive environments for breastfeeding.
On a practical level, the partner and the mother’s environment can learn how to help breastfeeding , especially when the woman returns to work, cannot breastfeed the baby or needs time for personal fulfillment and rest.
Helps to prolong it:
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Express breast milk using a manual or electric breast pump. It makes it easier for other people to feed babies and get involved in their care.
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Freeze the milk, so that the baby can drink it at any time. Expressed milk retains most of its health benefits for infants, however, good hygiene must be maintained to ensure the safety of the baby. The best option is not to leave the milk in the freezer for more than 6 months, although it can last up to 9 months if it has been extracted in conditions of maximum cleanliness.
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Offer it with specific breastfeeding bottles, to prevent the baby from rejecting it because it prefers the mother’s breast.
2. Personalized support from lactation consultants
The breastfeeding consultants provide personalized support to each mother, providing them with information so that they feel secure with the parenting model they have chosen, decide if they want to express milk to feed the newborns, and helping them deal with possible latching problems, poor execution, stress, among others.
The support of the consultants also helps mothers to combat false expectations regarding breastfeeding and to cope with the judgment of third parties. Faced with the pressure that can be exerted on mothers, the consultants praise their work and applaud each step they take, seeking to create a climate of trust in which they feel confident about themselves.
Breastfed babies have less hospital admissions and, if they occur, they are of shorter duration and suffer fewer infectious diseases, which results in savings for the family economy and public administrations.
In addition, mothers also benefit from breastfeeding, which protects them against breast and ovarian cancer, and reduces their risk of osteoporosis.
So in World Lactation Week, we want to claim breast milk as a natural way of feeding babies, so it is important to make visible the social problems that exist and that force the mother to wean earlier than desired. And in this sense, support is essential.
Via | Medela
Photos | iStock
In Babies and More | “My breastfeeding was not easy”: seven testimonies from mothers who make visible the problems that can arise with breastfeeding, “I don’t have enough milk”: the great concern of breastfeeding mothers, and how to solve it
