Husbands have been urged to support their breastfeeding wives to ensure the overall welfare and health of their children.
Kajiado County Nutritionist Ruth Nasinkoi, noted that a mother is able to produce more breastmilk when supported physically and emotionally at home.
Speaking at Isinya Health Centre during an event to mark the World Breastfeeding Week that runs from 1st August-7th August 2024, Nasinkoi revealed that milk production is affected when a mother is under stress thus husbands must ensure they provide a conducive environment at home for the mothers to be able to produce milk and breast feed their children.
“Stress affects milk production thus a lactating mother should be supported both physically and emotionally by the husband and family to ensure that she is in the right frame of mind to produce milk,” she said.
Nasinkoi further urged the husbands to massage their wives’ backs when breastfeeding, adding that this helps increase the flow of the milk. She outlined the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child’s life adding that breast milk saves children’s lives as it provides antibodies that protects them against many childhood illnesses.
The nutritionist added that breastfeeding also helps in the brain development of a child while for the mothers lowers the risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, mastitis, and engorgement of the breasts.
“Children who are exclusively breastfed for the first six months get sick less often and have higher brain development and physical growth,” Nasinkoi said.
She further called on breastfeeding mothers to eat a proper diet as poor nutrition leads to lack of enough breast milk which subsequently affects the baby’s health.
Nasinkoi also urged working mothers to ensure they breastfeed exclusively for six months by expressing breast milk for their babies to take while they are at work.
She called on employers to provide a conducive environment for the lactating mothers to express milk.
Kajiado County Executive Committee Member for Health Alex Kilowua reiterated the importance of breastmilk in a child’s life adding that the first one thousand days in a baby’s life are crucial.
Kilowua called on men to support their women from the time they start attending antenatal clinics by accompanying them to the clinics so as to learn how to take care of their children’s health.
Chesang Machezo, a resident of Isinya and a mother to a two-year-old boy, says she was able to breast feed her child exclusively for six months due to the support she got from her husband.
Machezo noted that her husband assisted her with housework and ensured she always ate a balanced diet and rested well thus she was able to produce enough breast milk.
The 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.
This year’s theme, “Closing the gap: Breastfeeding support for all” emphasizes on ways families, society and health workers can support breastfeeding mothers.
By Rop Janet
