Mother's Milk Is The Best Nutrition For The Child
World Breastfeeding Week, 1-7 August 2012
Shobha Shukla – CNS
(CNS): Mother’s milk is the ideal nutritionally perfect food for newborns and infants. It is like nectar for the infant
and is aptly called the first vaccine that can be given to the child. During the initial post natal phase, breast milk
is in the form of yellow viscous milk or colostrums which is packed with antibodies (immune globulins), and give the
child an integral immunity against various diseases, including acute respiratory infections and diarrhoea. Breast milk
is also rich in proteins, has enzymatic activity that prevents the growth of bacteria and viruses, and fulfils all the
nutritional requirements of the new born for the first six months. It is safe, easy to digest, is readily available and
very affordable. Thus breastfeeding is the cheapest and most effective way to ensure a child’s health and survival.
Exclusive breast feeding implies that the child should be only, and only, on mother's milk from first hour of birth up
to a minimum of six months, without any other supplement like water, honey, gripe water or any top feed. If only every
infant were exclusively breastfed during the first six months of life, an estimated 1.5 million human lives would be
saved every year on this earth. Elaborating on the merits of breast feeding, Dr Amita Pandey, Associate Professor of
Obstetrics and Gynaecology, King George’s Medical University (KGMU) said to Citizen News Service (CNS): “I work in a
government hospital and the only feeding modality that is advocated in our setup is exclusive breast feeding (no water,
sugar, gripe water, honey, or coconut water) during the first 6 months of life. We let the mother start feeding the baby
as early as within 10 minutes of delivery. We put the baby, cord and all, on the mother’s abdomen, and it crawls up and
starts suckling. This early suckling also helps in the delivery of the placenta and the membrane.”
Ironically, Aakanksha, mother of a one month old baby (delivered through a caesarean section in a private nursing home)
told that as she did not lactate immediately after the delivery, the doctor allowed her to feed her baby on formula milk
through an unsterilized cup and spoon for the first two days. Later she switched on to breast feeding the child.
Similarly, another young mother Veena said that though she was breastfeeding her infant daughter, she had given her
water too. She was unaware of the harms of letting the baby drink water along with mother’s milk. However, Prerna, the
proud mother of a week old caesarean infant is strictly exclusively breastfeeding her son and is determined to continue
with it for the next 6 months.
According to Dr Neelam Singh, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, “Not only the doctor, but everyone who
converses with a new mother-- the nurse, attendant and her family members--has a distinct role to play. The doctor’s
responsibility is to assure the mother that she can give her child complete nutrition by exclusive breastfeeding and to
ensure that breastfeeding is started early. The paramedical staff should educate her about the benefits of breastfeeding
and help her continue with it. The family’s role is to support her and take good care of her food and nourishment.”
Despite the medical fraternity vouching for the efficacy of mother’s milk, less than 40% of infants below six months of
age are exclusively breastfed worldwide. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, only 17.7% of the children aged 6-35 months are
exclusively breastfed for the first six months. In UP alone, which has the dubious distinction of having the highest
infant, neonatal as well as under five mortality rate in India, around 70,000 child deaths can be prevented every year
if adequate breast feeding practices are followed and children receive only breast milk for the first 6 months of their
life.
Bottle feeding is taken as a sign of modernity in urban as well as rural Indian households, with scant regard for the
level of hygiene required. It is not uncommon to find even poor women resorting to bottle feeding their child with goat
or cow milk. Adding fuel to fire are the glamorous advertisements of infant formula milk and baby food, showing
suggestive models of chubby, smiling babies, to entrap the modern urbanite mother and tempt her to formula-feed her
child instead of her own milk. Infant formula milk may at times meet the nutrient requirements but it does not have the
immune globulins. Also, the level of hygiene demanded by bottle-feeding is very hard to meet especially in a country
like India. This predisposes the child to more infection. Moreover maternal and infant bonding, which is crucial to the
emotional development of the child, cannot be provided by these foods. Bottle feeds and formula milk can never be a
replacement for breast milk.
A reason commonly cited by new mothers for not breast feeding is that they are not able to produce enough milk in the
first few days, forcing them to put the baby on top feed. Ramdulari, the mother of a 6 years old TB patient, is one of
such large numbers of undernourished Indian mothers who did not breastfeed her son due to the unfounded fear of
insufficient lactation, thus making him a weakling prone to infections. Dr Amita Pandey strongly contends that whatever
colostrums the mother produces during the first few days, are enough nutrition for the baby. A full term baby has enough
glycogen stored in her to help her sustain for the initial two days. Moreover, if the baby is put to breast, the mother
is bound to lactate eventually. It is like a cyclic process—put the baby to breast, there is a cyclic release of
hormones, and the mother’s milk production increases. The more is the baby put to breast, the more would be the milk
production. Only in extremely rare cases where sufficient breast milk is not produced, or if the mother is suffering
from some serious ailment, does the doctor allow top feed.
Sometimes working mothers, who have to leave their baby home for long hours after a few weeks of delivery, either stop
breast feeding the child early and/or ensure that the child has at least one top feed. They feel that if the child is
not initiated into top feed from the beginning, she will not accept it later and thus create problems. It should be made
mandatory for the employer to ensure that the workplace environment and working conditions are baby friendly – six
months maternity leave; flexible working hours that allow the mother to breastfeed her baby in a separate feeding room;
and/or crèche facility.
In the chaos of ignorance about the benefits of breastfeed, there are some sane voices of mothers like Kalpana, which
are worth emulating. Kalpana, who recently delivered her second child at a private nursing home, says, “I exclusively
breastfed my first child during the first six months, right after my caesarean delivery. Since I had to join my
workplace only after three months of maternity leave, I made use of the breast pump to store my breast milk for 3-4
hours, which helped me to exclusively breastfeed him for more than 6 months.”
Lack of education and awareness about the benefits of breast feed among the masses prevents many mothers from
exclusively breast feeding their baby. Sometimes misplaced notions about spoiling their figure prevent young mothers
from breast feeding. The truth is that suckling of milk does not deform the shape of the breast. Rather, breast feeding
brings the mother back to her normal physical shape much faster, than if she does not breast feed the child. Traditional
norms sometimes go against exclusive breastfeeding. In many families it is considered auspicious to give goat milk to
the infant or a drop of honey, or even gripe water. And if the mother is a working woman, she may resort to top feeds
for her convenience.
Dr Arun Gupta, Regional Coordinator International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), Asia would like the Central and
State governments to have their plan of action and budget allocation for promoting breast feeding, based on gaps which
exist in current policy and programmes, in order to live up to this year’s theme of ‘Understanding The Past, Planning
For The Future’.
It would make good sense to include nutrition education, with special emphasis on infant feeding practices, as part of
the school/college curriculum so that adolescents understand the medical benefits of mother’s milk and dispel the myths
associated with breastfeeding. We should promote breast feeding and good nutrition for women in both rural and urban
areas. Working mothers should be made aware of the utility of breast pumps. Breast milk is the child's natural immunity
and she should not be deprived of it. (CNS)
Shobha Shukla - CNS
(The author is the Managing Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS). She is a J2J Fellow of National Press Foundation (NPF)
USA. She has worked earlier with State Planning Institute, UP and taught physics at India's prestigious Loreto Convent.
She also authored a book on childhood TB (2012), co-authored a book (translated in three languages) "Voices from the
field on childhood pneumonia" and a report on Hepatitis C and HIV treatment access issues in 2011. Email:
shobha@citizen-news.org, website: http://www.citizen-news.org )
- Shared under Creative Commons (CC) Attribution License
ENDS