‘Breastfeeding can save lives of children’

BHUBANESWAR: “Breastfeeding can save lives of children as it is regarded as the best tool to fight with malnutrition,” said the experts in a State-level workshop organised by the Child Health Now (CHN)-Odisha to observe World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) here on Monday.

According to the third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), 40 per cent children of the State are coming under weight category and it can be addressed by promoting and propagating breastfeeding by creating awareness among the family members of pregnant and lactating mothers in the State.

The participants discussed about this year’s theme of the WBW ‘Breastfeeding Support: Close to Mothers’ in the workshop and highlighted the benefits of breastfeeding. The experts advised the mothers to initiate breastfeeding within one hour of child birth, exclusive breastfeeding up to six months, complementary feeding after six months and continued breastfeeding up to two years and beyond.

CHN-Odisha announced that it would organise State wide campaign to promote the cause for the betterment maternal and child health in the society. Soumya Ranjan Pattnaik, Unicef’s nutrition consultant Farida Sultana, development consultant Rupali Kar, CHN Odisha convener Gournaga Mohapatra spoke in the workshop. More than 150 lactating women, NGO representatives, PRI members, adolescent girls, service providers like AWW, ANM, ASHA participated in the program.

Notably, the Annual Health Survey (2010-11) report which was released last year said that only around 24.8 per cent of the lactating mothers in the State adhere to exclusive breastfeeding over the prescribed six months. The State had been ranked 7th position in the country for initiating breastfeeding within one hour of child birth with 54.8 percent and ranked 12th in exclusive breastfeeding within six months having only 50.2 per cent.