Feed babies your best
SOUTH AFRICA has one of the lowest breast-feeding rates in the world. Not because women do not understand the importance of breast-feeding for their children, but because women face a hostile environment to care for their children. This World Breast-feeding Week, observed during the first week in August, the South African Civil Society for Women’s, Adolescents’ and Children’s Health (SACSoWACH) focused on creating an environment that enables and supports women to breast-feed successfully.
Due to our current global crises, with the engulfing Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crash, women are bearing the brunt of job losses. Female-headed households, especially, are experiencing a financial shock, adding to the burden of finding food for their families and caring for their children. In South Africa, nearly one in two households are headed by women.
South Africa is known as “the fatherless nation” as it has one of the highest numbers of absent fathers in the world. It is estimated that nine million children in South Africa grow up without fathers. In a recent media report, even our Springbok captain has had to call on men to support and eradicate the scourge of abuse and violence against women.
Breast-feeding is excellent for infants and young children as a food source, for immunity and for neuro-cognitive development, and emotional self-regulation. The first step to creating a supportive and safe environment for women and children is the essential provision of food for pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers. Safety and protection for moms, as the life-carrier and carer of children, is non-negotiable.
The high rates of violence in South Africa cannot be ignored. Breast-feeding is associated with less violence in societies. Research also shows that 80% of rapists are the product of absent fathers. Young men who grow up without involved fathers are more likely to develop “hyper-masculine” behaviours such as aggression and emotional instabilities. In contrast, young women are more likely to develop lower self-esteem and become victims of violence. Many hungry and stunted children live in fatherless homes where suicide is more likely in these individuals.
We need fathers and empowered men to step up and invest in the future of our society. In South Africa, there are a number of civil society organisations (CSO) institutions and individuals working within child, adolescent and maternal and women’s health who have the potential to positively influence policies and programmes to address reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health.
For this reason, a CSO coalition was formed in 2015 called SACSoWACH which has a very important function to strengthen the link with government and the community, to mobilise the community to increase demand for essential services they are entitled to, and to enforce the accountability of the Department of Health. These actions are essential for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 2016 onwards.
There is also the South African Breastmilk Reserve (SABR) for support, a not-for-profit, human milk-banking organisation, founded in 2003, focusing on breastfeeding advocacy and promotion.