World Breastfeeding Week: Lactation Consultant Seeks Ease For Working Mothers

• A health consultant and breastfeeding expert has revealed the importance of Breastfeeding for both moth and child
• Dr Chinny Obinwanne revealed that Breastfeeding helps the child fight common illnesses while aiding the breastfeeding mother to keep fit
• She stated that working mothers who breastfeed their children should adequately prepare before resuming work

To mark 2023 World Breastfeeding Week, Lactation consultant, Founder, Milk booster, and MilkBank, Nigeria, Dr. Chinny Obinwanne, has stated the importance of Breastfeeding to the overall health and wellness of both baby and mother.

She said that Breastfeeding reduces the risk of many illnesses and diseases in a newborn, from respiratory issues like pneumonia to gastrointestinal problems like vomiting and diarrhea, including lowering the risk of allergy, eczema, asthma, and atopic dermatitis.

Consultant reveals the importance breastfeeding for mother and child

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She said Breastfeeding keeps babies alive by lowering the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) in premature babies, stating that getting breast milk provides a lot of immediate and long-term benefits that follow the baby as they grow to toddlers, teenagers, and a grown adult.

She said:

"For a newborn; the first milk (colostrum), which is loaded with antibodies, coats the lining of the gut preventing the passage of bacteria and viruses into the baby's body system. Breast milk provides the perfect nutrition that contains everything a baby needs for the first six months of life."

In line with the theme of this year's World Breastfeeding Week, 'Enabling Breastfeeding: Making a Difference For Working Parents, Dr. Obinwanne noted that Breastfeeding helps a mother lose weight as it takes a considerable amount of calories to manufacture breast milk.

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Health benefits of breast milk for children

The more breast milk a mother's body produces, the more calories it will consume from her body fat storage to make it. If the mother eats suitable nutrient-dense meals, she will notice weight loss.

"Where some nursing mothers cannot produce enough milk for their babies, rather than supplementing their breast milk with formula, they can do that with pasteurized donor human milk.

According to WHO, pasteurized donor human milk is the best option when babies do not have access to their mother's milk," Obinwanne added.

Speaking on the challenges of running a milk bank in Nigeria, she noted that lack of funding plays a huge role.

"Without any external funding, The Milk Booster has been funding the cost implication of running the Milk Bank from paying the staff, blood screening of each donor mum, the numerous pre-pasteurization and post-pasteurization milk screening and running the facility. It's been a lot. I remember the number of times we had a post-pasteurization milk sample test come back needing to be clarified. We kept going back and forth with the team in South Africa that helped us so much to get past that hurdle."

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She also advocated continuous desensitization of the public with online and offline education while encouraging new mums going back to work to start preparing early, from the first two weeks after delivery, on how to breastfeed and store the milk for the baby.

Types of breastfeeding babies: best positions

Legit.ng reported that it’s very important to know all the types of breastfeeding and all the respective techniques, especially if it’s your first baby.

The way the baby is attached to your breast and the latch mean a lot for your own comfort and for the baby who needs to be satisfied after feeding. So check out the article below and find out more about proper breastfeeding and several very useful tips.

All mothers who have already tried breastfeeding their babies know well that there’s no single rule for the best possible techniques and methods. Every baby is unique and every case is unique.

Source: Legit.ng