Varying reasons are given by different mothers as to why they don’t breastfeed their babies:

Demand at work: With the little usual three months maternity leave given by most work places, mothers sometimes have no choice but go back to work after being with their babies for only a few months. This leaves mothers to leave babies home to be fed on baby formula or some of them resort to breast pumping their milk and storing it in refrigerators.

Inadequate lactation: Some mothers fail to breastfeed because they lack milk in their breasts. For most working mothers, when they resume work they have no time to eat or breastfeed. This makes their bodies to stop producing enough milk to feed their babies since their bodies have started to adjust to the routine.

Biting babies: Some mothers have stopped breast feeding their babies due to the fact that these babies have started to bite. Imagine placing your beautiful baby on the breast and she/he just bites you. The older they get the more tricks these babies bring. One of the mothers confessed   that “when my baby turned 4months, he started biting my nipples. He did this three times which made me put him on baby formula since my breasts had wounds” Says Maurine.

Health conditions: Some mothers have been advised by doctors not to breast feed due to some health conditions like if a mother is HIV positive. The world health organization (WHO) recommends that when HIV positive mother breastfeed, they should receive ARVs and follow WHO guidelines for infant feeding. Other diseases that stop mothers range from tuberculosis, cancer and malaria.

Sagging breasts: Most women believe that breastfeeding makes their breasts sag. Just like today’s generation wants to stay top notch they don’t want to have bad boobs. This makes them hate to breast their little babies. They also complain that when their breasts are breastfeeding their men don’t want to be with them which affects their love making.

Lifestyle: Some mothers don’t want to breast feed because it will change their lifestyle. Bottle feeding leaves new mothers without an option to stay on their diets, food and medications they use. So in order to stay fit or go back to their workout routines they stop breastfeeding.

Unplanned child: Some mothers have had unplanned children, for example if one wants a baby boy and she gives birth to a girl. Some mothers will hate these babies and wish they didn’t give birth to them. This makes them even deny them food/ breast milk.

What do we need to do?

In order to promote breastfeeding and provide good health and nutrition to the child, we need to address the work related challenges of mothers through supporting them with breastfeeding rooms at their work places where they can have breaks to go feed their babies. Or increase on mothers maternity leave to allow them more time with their babies.

Mothers should also feed well in order to increase milk production so that they produce enough milk to feed their babies whenever they need it. They should eat healthy and this means eating a balanced diet. They also should not have stress because stress decreases milk production.

Midwives and doctors should continue doing what they have been doing by continuing to push these mothers to breastfeed their babies other than paying some other person to look after their new born babies

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Ugandan mothers have poor breastfeeding habits-say nutrition experts

The post Why today’s mothers fail to breast feed their babies? first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

According to Dr. Jasent Asiimwe, the head of nutrition at the health ministry, statistics show that 53% of mothers in Uganda breast feed their babies in the first hour of birth and yet the global target is at least 80%.

A mother breastfeeding her child in Uganda.

He also revealed that whereas children are supposed to be breastfed for at least 2 years after birth, only 48% of children are breastfed for that period across the country.

The experts were speaking during an event commemoration of the World Breastfeeding Week which is annually celebrated globally in the first week of August as a way of advocating and creating awareness about the need for mothers to exclusively breastfeed their children for six months so that they can gain immunity to fight common illnesses especially among children under 5 years.

However, the head of community health department at the ministry, Dr. Paul Kaggwa and UNICEF’s Specialist on nutrition, Awi Omega, urged men to always support their women during breast feeding period by providing them with better nutritious foods.

The World Breastfeeding Week 2016 theme is about how breastfeeding is a key element in getting us to think about how to value our wellbeing from the start of life, how to respect each other and care for the world we share.

The post Ugandan mothers have poor breastfeeding habits-say nutrition experts first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

However the long term breastfeeding benefits had never been established. In a recently concluded study published in The Lancet, it has been discovered that breastfeeding has long term benefits for up to 30 years.

The Findings:

According to the study ‘From June 4, 2012, to Feb 28, 2013, of the 5914 neonates enrolled, information about IQ and breastfeeding duration was available for 3493 participants. In the crude and adjusted analyses, the durations of total breastfeeding and predominant breastfeeding (breastfeeding as the main form of nutrition with some other foods) were positively associated with IQ, educational attainment, and income. We identified dose-response associations with breastfeeding duration for IQ and educational attainment. In the confounder-adjusted analysis, participants who were breastfed for 12 months or more had higher IQ scores (difference of 3·76 points, 95% CI 2·20–5·33), more years of education (0·91 years, 0·42–1·40), and higher monthly incomes (341·0 Brazilian reals, 93·8–588·3) than did those who were breastfed for less than 1 month. The results of our mediation analysis suggested that IQ was responsible for 72% of the effect on income.’

This is interpreted as breastfeeding being associated with improved performance in intelligence tests 30 years later, by increasing educational attainment and income in adulthood. Here is yet another reason to breast feed your baby; to give them a better future which will ultimately feed into the nation’s future.

Read the full report here Lancet Report

Below is an audio of a discussion of the findings:

The post 30 years Down the Road: Another Reason to Breastfeed first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.