adminAccording to the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey for 2011, only 31 percent of Zimbabwean women practise exclusive breastfeeding.
Zimbabwe joins the rest of the world in commemorating breastfeeding week in August.
In an interview, nutrition intervention manager with the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare Mrs Monica Muti attributed the low uptake of exclusive breastfeeding to societal, cultural and religious beliefs surrounding lactating mothers.
This year’s commemorations will run under the theme: “Breastfeeding support: close to mothers”.
Mrs Muti said this year’s commemorations would focus on drawing peer support towards breastfeeding.
“We want mothers to get all the support they want starting from the clinic down to the community so that they practise exclusive breastfeeding within the first six months of birth,” said Mrs Muti.
Mrs Muti said although this support existed, there were a lot of other issues hindering successful practice of feeding newly born babies with breast milk only for the first six months.
These include practices such as giving the baby other solid foods, water and oil.
“The reason why we encourage exclusive breastfeeding until six months of age is to curb infections and other associated conditions such as stunted growth,” said Mrs Muti.
“The ZDHS proves that about one third of children in Zimbabwe are stunted and this is so largely due to poor feeding practices, which includes breastfeeding.”
She said in preparation for the national breastfeeding commemorations, Government would focus on information dissemination to all stakeholders on the importance of supporting mothers to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months.
Employers, educationists and teachers are some of the stakeholders targeted so that they can cascade the messages down to their constituencies.
Mrs Muti said nutritionists were also lobbying for enabling environments at work places for breastfeeding mothers.
She said this would go a long way in encouraging working mothers to exclusively breastfeed.
“Traditionally, support is provided by the family. As societies change, however, in particular with urbanisation, support for mothers from a wider circle is needed, whether it is provided by trained health workers, lactation consultants, community leaders, or from friends who are also mothers, and/or from fathers/partners,” said Mrs Muti.
Online Reporter