NATIONAL BREASTFEEDING WEEK
September 2022
The breast is best’. This is a truth universally accepted, with breastfeeding the most efficient and cost-effective way for young infants to receive the nutrients they require for their health and survival. It is vital, therefore, that breastfeeding is supported by mothers and fathers, and indeed, the whole of society.
I, therefore, welcome the celebration of this year’s National Breastfeeding Week, under the theme, “Step Up for Breastfeeding: Support & Educate”. We must continue to nurture the appropriate enabling environment for mothers to breastfeed. The benefits of breastfeeding, including reducing the risk of Non-Communicable Diseases, which are an ongoing challenge to public health, cannot be ignored.
This year’s theme reflects the need to enable a community of actors, from mommy and daddy to our community stakeholders, healthcare providers and the workplace to promote and sustain breastfeeding. Jamaica’s exclusive breastfeeding rates remain lower than they should be –with less than 50 per cent of infants exclusively breastfed at six (6) months. We must improve those numbers.
At the Ministry of Health & Wellness, we are doing our part, including the development and implementation of the National Policy on Infant and Young Child Feeding and the supporting Strategic Plan of Action for Infant and Young Child Feeding.
Only recently we expanded the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative to a sixth facility – the Mandeville Regional Hospital. The six facilities are now certified ‘baby friendly’, even as work continues to ensure that all our facilities realise a similar status.
There is, too, the establishment of the National Infant and Young Child Feeding Network, with some 38 Community Infant and Young Child Feeding Support Groups islandwide.
Also, through the Ministry’s Workplace Wellness Programme, we have engaged some 100 workplaces and are working with them to provide a supportive environment for breastfeeding. This includes not only the enforcement of maternity leave, but also allowing the time and spaces for mothers to express and store their breastmilk.
The vision of the National Infant and Young Child Feeding Policy for Jamaica is that ‘all infant and young children in Jamaica attain optimal health and development, which allows them to achieve their full potential’ while creating a supportive environment for mothers.
As a Ministry of Health & Wellness, we are committed to making this a reality as we strive for higher levels of breastfeeding – through not only our individual but collaborative efforts, and toward the achievement of the fifth global nutrition target for 2025, which is to increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six (6) months up to at least 50%.
I urge all Jamaicans to champion breastfeeding, becoming advocates for a practice that holds tremendous value for the health of the population.
“I urge all Jamaicans to champion breastfeeding,”