Society has role in breastfeeding

Everyone was waiting for it and was waiting for it! Some watched it live, others listened to commentators or got second hand information from those who watched it. That was the World Cup!

The talk revolved around which teams are playing, who scored or who missed a goal. In keeping with the goal-scoring theme, it would be great if we could all be involved or interested in talking about “the winning goal for life”!

Next month, we celebrate world breastfeeding week, which is marked worldwide from August 1 to 7. This year’s theme is Breastfeeding: The Winning Goal for Life.

I know many of us may not feel any connection with world breastfeeding week, and will leave it to the nursing mothers and governments to talk about it. But the truth is, we all have a role to play, whether we have children or not, are grandparents, mothers, or fathers.

CONTRIBUTE TO PROGRESS

We all have a role to play in promoting, supporting and advocating breastfeeding.

This year’s theme asserts the importance of increasing and sustaining the protection, promotion and support for breastfeeding — in keeping with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Breastfeeding is a life saving goal and as such should be protected, promoted, and supported.

In 1990, eight millennium development goals were set by governments and the United nations. Key among these are pledge by countries to fight poverty, and promote healthy and sustainable development by 2015 — which is next year!.

So have we as a country achieved the MDGs? Although much progress has taken place, there is still a lot that is yet to be done.

By protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding, you can contribute to each MDG in a significant way.

Exclusive breastfeeding and complementary feeding are key interventions for improving child survival, and potentially saving about 20 per cent of children under five.

Next week we will look at how exactly breastfeeding is linked to the MDG.