Dionne Rose, Staff ReporterTHE LOW rate of exclusive breastfeeding among Jamaican mothers continues to pose a great danger to the nutritional health of their children, according to a recent UNICEF report.
In its 2005 Report on Jamaica, UNICEF said that whilst most mothers breastfed in 2003, exclusive breastfeeding at six weeks was only 47 per cent with a further decline to 36 per cent at three months.
The report pointed out that this was significantly below the global target of 70 per cent at six months.
Other statistics showed that exclusive breastfeeding up to six weeks began to trend down since 1997 when the numbers fell from 53.9 per cent to 48.6 per cent in 2000 and tapered off at 47 per cent in 2001.
While the report failed to say what were the causes of the decline in exclusive breastfeeding, health professionals contacted by The Gleaner have nailed down some reasons for the decline.
Hazeline Williams, senior public health nurse at Gordon Town Health Centre in St. Andrew said that the main reason given by mothers were that they have to return to work so they give the child the formula for them to get accustomed to it.
When asked if mothers return to work at six weeks after giving birth. She said, "Most of these women are self-employed". "Life is hard for them so they have to go back out to do little hustling (earn a living)," she added.
SAGGING BREASTS
Another reason she said that women were not exclusively breastfeeding was the fear that their breasts would begin to sag. "This is a myth," she pointed out.
She said some mothers believe that bottle-feeding was more "fashionable" than breastfeeding. "Sometimes they come to the health centres and they boast off with the bottles. They think it is the hip thing to give formula feed," said nurse Williams.
Meanwhile, Dr. Christine Gabbadon, programme development officer in the Ministry of Health has attributed breaches of the International Code of Marketing of breast milk substitutes, which specifically prohibits the advertising or promotion of infant formula as well as bottles and nipples as another reason for the decline.
Advantages of breastfeeding:
breastfed babies tend to have less incidence of or less
pronounced symptoms of ear infections, respiratory illness, allergies, diarrhoea, and vomiting because of the anti-infective
properties of breastmilk.
breastfed babies are rarely constipated due to the digestibility of breastmilk and are said to have IQ levels 8 points higher than babies that are not breastfed.
