Confronting exclusive breastfeeding challenges

From August 1 to 7, Malawi joined the world in celebrating the World Breastfeeding Week, commemorated under the theme Breastfeeding: A Winning Goal for Life. Nonetheless, behind the celebrations rests a time bomb threatening the success of exclusive breastfeeding for babies. ALBERT SHARRA explores.

Rarely do parents rename children a year or so after birth, but for Priscilla Tambala, 28, of Traditional Authority (T/A) Machinjiri in Blantyre, giving her firstborn child another name at the age of two was necessary.

For a year, the daughter was known as Beauty, but now she is Chisomo. Tambala says there is a reason she did this.

“For over a year after the birth of my daughter, I faced a lot of challenges. This forced me to change her name,” she says.

Tambala says she spent five days in a comma in hospital after giving birth due to shortage of body fluids and other complications arising from the pregnancy. As a result, she could not breastfeed. As if this were not enough, she says ailments did not spare her body and her doctor advised her to stop breastfeeding although the baby was less than a month old.

“It was hard for me. I saw my baby becoming malnourished because I could not breastfeed. Due to poverty, I could not afford baby formula. I thank God that with vegetable soup, animal milk and porridge, she survived and is now a healthy girl,” says Tambala.

She said people in her neighbourhood believed she could not breastfeed either because the baby was not hers or she was HIV-positive.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Unicef recommend that every child should be breastfed exclusively for six months and breastfeeding should continue alongside complementary foods up to 24 months or more.

However, most women today cannot do this for various reasons, including health and careers.

Most employers offer about three months maternity leave and others less, making it hard for working women to exclusively breastfeed their babies.

Besides, most workplace environments do not have facilities like nursery rooms where working women that are breastfeeding can have their babies looked after by a nanny and breastfeed the babies from time to time, like some developed countries do.

Then there are cultural beliefs whereby some parents believe their babies will be healthier if they are introduced to solids earlier than the six months of exclusive breastfeeding. According to the 2010 Malawi Demographic Health Survey (DHS), 71 percent of babies born in Malawi are exclusively breastfed and 88 percent are introduced to complementary foods timely.

The DHS further notes that 99 percent of babies born in 2008 and 2009 were breastfed, an improvement from 70 percent recorded in the 2004 DHS.

But there is still a long way to go to achieve 100 percent exclusive breastfeeding, especially at this time when the Western culture is influencing behaviours on breastfeeding.

Spokesperson for Ministry of Health Henry Chimbali says there are many factors that affect exclusive breastfeeding but that behaviour of women is a big threat in promoting exclusive breastfeeding.

“There is need for more sensitisation. We take advantage of the days in the breastfeeding week to reach out to many families and to encourage them to exclusively breastfeed their children. We also lobby with other key players to come up with measures that support women to breastfeed exclusively,” he says.

While commending efforts being made, Chimbali says it is time the policy on maternity leave were reviewed to match with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which will motivate women to exclusively breastfeed.

The ILO recommends 14 weeks for maternity leave, two weeks above the average time for maternity leave in Malawi.

“Apart from increasing the period of maternity leave, we want to come up with strategies that might help to influence employers to allow breastfeeding mothers to have longer lunch breaks so that they can breastfeed their babies. We are also encouraging women to express milk from their breasts and keep it in good facilities for the babies to feed in their absence,” says Chimbali.

Chrissie Ramson, a midwife and psychologist and works as regional officer for a Health and Development (HAD) Project in Lilongwe says breastfeeding should not be ignored at all cost.

She says breast milk contains body nutrients, antibodies for body protection, improves baby’s intelligence and promotes the bond between the mother and child.

Above all, she says apart from the emotional satisfaction, breastfeeding has health benefits for mothers.

“Studies have shown that breastfeeding lowers the risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and anaemia in mothers. It helps mothers to lose the weight gained during pregnancy faster. Exclusive breastfeeding delay fertility, thus avoiding early pregnancy,” Ramson says.