Sunday, June 17, 2018

Early Moments Matter in Parenting

This blog post is about the important role of both the parents in nursing their newborn baby and above all the importance of breastfeeding

Some 20 years back it was a myth that breastfeeding would affect the body of the mother. It is not known who marketed this against nature campaign, but for many years the new mothers were keeping away from breastfeeding. After a long time, this myth changed and nature won!

This wrong myth of anti-breastfeeding was carried on a whole generation later realizing that breast milk is best for the baby. It made the world realize that basic reason for malnutrition in the newborn babies is not being breastfed. Thanks to UNICEF for taking this initiative and educating the females regarding the importance of breastfeeding in respect to malnutrition.

I have been thinking about the reasons why it was wrongly propagated about breastfeeding. May by the industrialization would have been the reason behind. The capitalist wanted to make profits! They made products which were for the newborn babies. In order to sell their products in competition to the regular supply of milk through mother’s breast would have been a tough thing. Therefore, they propagated that if a female is breastfeeding her baby it will affect her body and the same will disfigure. This might have been successful for some years, as nature is supreme in every respect and to prove that is perfect too, the problem of breast cancer increased. This might have helped the other capitalist class who are running the medical business, but actually, every human being is afraid of death. And, finally, Nature won. Now, there is a huge emphasis on breastfeeding the newborn baby within one hour of the birth.

But the problem of the negative that has been created is still persistent and to remove this myth UNICEF along with other NGOs is playing a vital role. During an event in New Delhi which was organized by UNICEF India on Malnutrition (Titled: Early Moments Matter) I was discussing this problem. During the discussion I came to know that while the mother is lying in the labour room for some time post delivery, she has no one to educate her regarding the importance of early breastfeeding or colostrum. This is a serious problem. I have few suggestions regarding this:
  1. In the labour room, beautiful posters should be placed advocating the importance of early breastfeeding in slogan form e.g. स्तनपान ममता की शान! (Breastfeeding is mother’s Pride!), 
  2. Even while the to be mother is going in for prenatal tests she should be presented with framed poster carrying beautiful and a hard-hitting slogan about breastfeeding and importance of colostrum for the newborn baby,
  3. Educating the father and the entire family of the to be mother about the importance of mother’s milk for the baby,
  4. Running Social Media campaigns regarding the importance of breastfeeding should extensively be done,
  5. Propagating importance of Colostrum for the baby.

 

The role of the father is most important in the life of a newborn baby. He should devote his valuable time to nursing the child as the first 1000 days are very important with respect to the development of the brain of the baby. Fathers should be given an example of Banggai cardinalfish. The male of this marine species keeps the eggs in its mouth for about 30 days. During these 30 days, he is not feeding rather remains hungry! If the male of the animal kingdom can perform his duty towards parenting then why can’t we human being?

If the wrong myth has abandoned a generation from mother’s milk a positive action would surely bring in a change and that too in little time.#EarlyMomentsMatter #BaapWaliBaat #BreastFeeding #MothersMilk #PrideInBreastFeeding #Colostrum #Banggai

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