The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, has said that it’s a sin for nursing mothers to deprive their children of exclusive breastfeeding which is the child’s first food as an infant.

The organisation lamented the low rate of exclusive breastfeeding in South South states and called for a return to exclusive breastfeeding in order to avert deaths among enfants.

UNICEF nutrition specialist, Rivers field office, Mrs. Ngozi Onuora said this while speaking at the Zonal media dialogue in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state to commemorate of the 2021 World Breastfeeding week organised in collaboration with Broadcast Corporation of Abia state.

Onuora said investigation has revealed in some communities that mothers complain that they stop breastfeeding after, two weeks, three weeks, one month, because their breastmilk is not enough to continue breastfeeding.

She called on the stakeholders including the media to ensure that the society returned to the heritage of exclusive breastfeeding through advocacy because of it obvious benefits to the development and overall well-being of a child.

Onuora said, “It is everybody’s responsibility to protect children. And I want to tell us that it is a sin for mothers not to practice exclusive breastfeeding which is child’s first food as an infant. It is also a more sin for us individuals, stakeholders in the society that are not encouraging mothers to practice exclusive breastfeeding.

“Exclusive breastfeeding has a lot of benefit. Breastfeeding is a powerful life-saver. It is also critical to the long term health and well-being of both mother and child. Unfortunately, the majority of world’s mothers are not able to optimally breastfeed their children.

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“In fact the most current survey globally, only 41% of infants are exclusively breastfed in the first 6 months and suboptimal breastfeeding practices contribute to roughly, 800, 000 child deaths annually. This is on the high side.

“And various things affect mothers in practising breastfeeding. For example, there are no set out strategies and supports to encourage mothers to breastfeed; there is no enabling environment to ensure that we protect breastfeeding.”

She added that exclusive breastfeeding is the foundation of a child’s survival, saying that child mortality and illnesses are preventable through exclusive breastfeeding and zero water practices.

The nutrition specialist listed the objectives of the media dialogue to include sensitising the public and stakeholders on their roles and responsibilities concerning the protection, support and promotion of breastfeeding, galvanizing e governments and donors to invest in breastfeeding programmes, and discussing benefits of investment/implementing Nutrition policies and plans at national and state levels.

“There is need to secure new financial policies for National breastfeeding programmes and supportive policies domesticated through Advocacy efforts. I know that the media has the capacity to strengthen political commitment.

“Also you can leverage on your efforts to sensitize other stakeholders to begin to rethink on their budgeting process and prioritize key things that are relevant for economic growth. And economic growth without the development of children and youths is zero because the future is not assured” Onuora stressed.