Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director-General, Ghana Health Service has urged Employers to allow women the time and space needed to breastfeed, including paid parental leave with longer maternity leave, providing safe places for breastfeeding in the workplace, access to affordable and good-quality childcare, universal child benefits, and adequate wages.
He said “close contact and early, exclusive breastfeeding helps a baby to thrive, therefore a woman with COVID-19 should be supported to breastfeed safely, hold her newborn skin-to-skin, and share a room with her baby,” saying it was vital to ensure that breastfeeding mothers do not get targeted by industry or marketing professionals who wanted to jeopardize their natural ability for breastfeeding by promoting formula-feeding.
Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, said this when he launched World Breastfeeding Week, on the theme: Protect Breastfeeding: A Shared responsibility is to revisit actions and country commitments by prioritizing breastfeeding-friendly environments for mothers and their babies.
The Director-General said breastfeeding acts as babies’ first vaccine, protecting them against many common childhood illnesses, therefore breastfeeding remained central to the survival, health, and wellbeing of women, children, and nations.
World Breastfeeding Week begins each year on the 1st of August and runs right through until the 7th.
World Breastfeeding Week aims to highlight the huge benefits that breastfeeding can bring to both the health and welfare of babies, as well as a wider push for maternal health, focusing on good nutrition, poverty reduction, and food security.
The event is organized every year by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), a global network that aims to protect, promote and support breastfeeding around the world. Along the way, it works with the World Health Organization and Unicef to get its aid to the right people in the right communities.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com
