Breast milk is the ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), which strongly recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. At six months, other food should complement breastfeeding for up to two years or more.
However, not everyone is convinced about this; many seem to find breastfeeding in public embarrassing, so the goodness of breast milk is often forgotten, or considered as a secondary matter.
Maltese society (and surprisingly many other societies in the developed world) still seems to be deep-seated in this mentality, though change is slowly happening.
Women should be made to feel comfortable to breastfeed their children in public and many methods of discreet nursing exist.
Without any doubt, nursing mothers should keep in mind the very fact that they are doing the best thing they possibly could for their children.
WHO recommends that infants should be exclusively breastfed – i.e. receive only breast milk – for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health. ‘Exclusive breastfeeding’ is defined as giving no other food or drink – not even water – except breast milk.
As parliamentary secretary for health Joe Cassar rightly pointed out at the news conference this week, breastfeeding also helps bonding between the mother and the baby.
It is interesting to note that during a feed, a baby will stop drinking when it gets full, so breastfeeding protects children from obesity, apart from other childhood illnesses.
Another issue that mothers have to tackle is going back to work after they have a baby. Maternity leave in Malta is currently 13 weeks, meaning that nursing mothers who go back to work need to find ways to continue breastfeeding their children.
WHO recommends that a new mother should have at least 16 weeks of absence from work after delivery, to be able to rest and breastfeed her child.
Many mothers who go back to work abandon exclusive breastfeeding before the recommended six months because they do not have sufficient time or an adequate place to breastfeed or express and store their milk at work. WHO says that mothers need access to a safe, clean and private place in or near their workplaces to continue the practice.
What has to be kept in mind is the fact that breastfeeding has several advantages for both babies and mothers.
It is safe and contains antibodies that help protect infants from common childhood illnesses – such as diarrhoea and pneumonia, the two primary causes of child mortality worldwide. Breast milk is readily available and it is free, which helps to ensure that infants get adequate sustenance.
It is free, clean and safe. What more could you want for your baby?
So why do so many women still cringe at the thought of breastfeeding? Society has a big part to play in this one.
Elizabeth Lee, a breastfeeding advocate, writes on her website, “My personal philosophy is that a mom has a right to nurse her baby anywhere that she happens to be!
“While other publications promote non-discreet public nursing as a way to ‘force’ the public into accepting and promoting breastfeeding, I feel that the best way to promote change is to quietly and discreetly nurse our babies everywhere we go!”