Council targets fathers during breastfeeding week
THE Bulawayo City Council joined the rest of the world in commemorating the World Breastfeeding Week, which ended on Friday with an aim to reach new audiences such as fathers and grandparents.
The Breastfeeding Week commemorations started from 7 August to 11 August and ran under the theme “Sustaining Breastfeeding Together.”
The council conducted health education sessions, giving out information about the importance of breastfeeding at anti-natal care and pre-natal care visit across council clinics in the city.
The World Breastfeeding Week is held every year to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world. In a statement the the local authority said the programme had to reach a wide audience.
“This year’s theme was focused on engaging and mobilising the general community and inter-generational work and deals with communication at various levels and between various sectors. It also aimed at reaching new audiences such as fathers, aunties and grandparents,” said the council.
The council said the objectives of the campaign were to draw attention of the public on the interest of the pursuit of breastfeeding until two years and beyond.
It also sought to make the public aware of the risks and costs that represent the introduction of artificial foods and drinks before six months by involving family, friends, relatives and the community to help them build and share vital messages and raise awareness.
The local authority said it also targeted to encourage partners to accompany their wives to the clinic during the week so as to share information on breastfeeding and weaning. According to a new report by Unicef and World Health Organisation in collaboration with Global Breastfeeding Collective (a new initiative to increase global breastfeeding rates), no country in the world fully meets recommended standards for breastfeeding.
The Global Breastfeeding Scorecard, which evaluated 194 nations, found that only 40 percent of children younger than six months are breastfed exclusively (given nothing but breast milk) and only 23 countries have exclusive breastfeeding rates above 60 per cent.
It also showed that an annual investment of only US$4.70 per newborn is required to increase the global rate of exclusive breastfeeding among children under six months to 50 percent by 2025.
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