Happy 2013 World Breastfeeding week.
“This year’s World Breastfeeding Week theme, ‘BREASTFEEDING SUPPORT: CLOSE TO MOTHERS’, highlights Breastfeeding Peer Counselling. Even when mothers are able to get off to a good start, all too often in the weeks or months after delivery there is a sharp decline in breastfeeding rates, and practices, particularly exclusive breastfeeding.” ~ http://worldbreastfeedingweek.org/
CleanBirth.org is embracing the idea of peer encouragement of breastfeeding. Our CleanBirth Volunteers, a woman selected from each village to be trained by a nurse, will receive education about the need to encourage exclusive breastfeeding in their villages.
In Laos rates of exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months is a meager 26%. Babies are often breastfed but also given rice and water too. Check out this article to learn more. Here are some excerpts:
According to research supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), sticky rice first chewed by the mother is fed to about 25 percent of infants within the first five months after delivery and for many, as early as the first week of life…
A 2007 article in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition stated that 5 percent of Lao children were never breastfed, and that inadequate breastfeeding contributed to high rates of malnutrition and infant mortality.
“Early complementary food may reduce or terminate their breast-milk intake, may be a source of microbial contamination and interfere in the absorption of essential micronutrients such as iron and zinc,” it stated.
This study by PLOS examines the use of Breast Milk Substitutes, particularly among more affluent Lao.
In Laos, mothers with the highest socio-economic status are showing a tendency to give up breastfeeding. Successful educational strategies and advocacy measures should be urgently developed to promote and sustain breastfeeding in developing countries.
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