The first week of August is celebrated as Breastfeeding Week all over the world to bring public awareness towards breastfeeding. The importance of mother's milk is informed during the breastfeeding week. For newborns, mother's milk is like nectar. Mother's milk protects infants from diseases like malnutrition and diarrhea. Infant mortality can be reduced by promoting breastfeeding. Women are particularly encouraged during this week to feed only mother's milk from birth to six months.
Feeding The Breast
Breastfeeding is a natural activity after the birth of a baby. All mothers breastfeed their babies in India, but first-time mothers need assistance to breastfeed early. Due to a lack of proper knowledge about breastfeeding, malnutrition in children is caused by disease and infection.
Why is breastfeeding important?
Breastfeeding works for the protection and promotion of the infant. This power is achieved by the mother's milk. Mother's milk contains an element called lactoferrin, which binds the iron element in the baby's intestine, and due to lack of iron element, germs are not able to grow in the baby's gut.
Unaffected bacteria from mother's milk thrives in the baby's bowels and do not allow them to compete with germs. Mother's milk contains germ-destroying elements.
The germs that reach the environment in the mother's intestine come into contact with a particular part of the pipe, which creates immunity against those germs. These elements reach the breast of the mother directly through a specialized tube of the thoracic duct and through milk into the baby's stomach. The child is always healthy by drinking mother's milk like this.
Children who do not get enough drinking in their mother's milk have higher diabetes disease in childhood. The development of intelligence is relatively less in those children who drink milk. If a child is born prematurely, he may have necrotizing enterocolitis, a fatal disease of the large intestine. If the cow's milk has been boiled in a brass vessel, it can cause liver (liver) disease like Indian Childhood Cirrhosis. Therefore, a mother's milk is not only good for the baby for six to eight months, but also life-saving.
Features
Women are being told about the characteristics of mother's milk, especially during World Breastfeeding Week. It is said that mother's milk contains essential nutrients, antibodies, hormones, immunity factors, and oxidants that are necessary for the newborn's better growth and health.
>Uncertain breastfeeding means that a child from birth to six months should not be fed any solid or liquid diet of water other than mother's milk.
>Mother's milk contains a lot of water so that the water requirements of a child up to six months can be met even in hot and dry weather.
>Besides the mother's milk, giving water to the child reduces the drinking of the child's milk and increases the risk of infection.
>The breast should be given inside the child's mouth within half an hour of delivery.
>Children delivered from the operation should be attached to the breast as soon as the mother's condition is corrected within 4-6 hours.
First milk (colostrum)
The first milk (colostrum), that thick, yellow milk that is produced from infancy to a few days (4 to 5 days), contains high amounts of vitamins, antibodies, and other nutrients.
>It protects against infections, protects against diseases such as night blindness.
>Any situation that may be convenient for breastfeeding may be adopted.
>Children of low birth weight and premature birth can also breastfeed.
>If the child is not able to breastfeed, then feed milk from the breast with the help of a cup and a spoon.
>Children who drink milk from the bottle are at very high risk of having diarrhea, so children should never be fed milk from the bottle.
>If the child is 6 months old, then he/she needs other supplements along with mother's milk.
>In this situation, liquid and semi-liquid solid foods should be given along with breastfeeding as well as other home-based food preparations such as mashed lentils, boiled potatoes, bananas, lentil water, etc. should remain.
>Breastfeeding and supplementary feeding should be continued even if the child is ill. Breastfeeding and supplemental feeding quickly improve a child's health.
Diet for children (6 to 12 months)
>Along with breastfeeding, mash the children with a semi-nutritious diet, chili-free porridge, khichdi, rice, pulses, curd, or milk-soaked bread.
>Start only one type of food at a time.
>Increase the quantity and variety of food gradually.
>Cook and mash potatoes, vegetables, bananas, and other fruits to the child.
>To increase the strength of the child, add a teaspoon of oil or ghee to the diet.
>Feed the child with a complementary diet before breastfeeding.
Malnutrition
Despite making lakhs of claims for development, India is also the only country in the world that has the highest ratio of birth rate and death rate of newborns every year. According to the National Health Family Welfare Survey 2005-2006, about 46% of the country's children suffer from malnutrition. In Uttar Pradesh, this figure is about 46%. Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of malnourished children in India. About 40% of children in Uttar Pradesh are born with less than average weight. Malnutrition accounts for about 60% underlying causes of death in children in an age group of 0 to 5 per year. The problem of hunger is more prevalent among the backward caste people and uneducated people in rural areas. The issue of malnutrition is widespread in pregnant women as children born underweight.
Reason
Not getting the mother's milk at the right time and in sufficient quantity is also a significant cause of the problem of malnutrition. The initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of the birth of an infant is an essential step towards reducing the proportion of deaths of infants and children below 5 years of age. Through which the high neonatal mortality rate can be drastically reduced, and the lives of about one million infants in India can be saved every year. Statistics show that only 23% of mothers in India can breastfeed within an hour of their birth. In Uttar Pradesh, this figure is only 7.2%. Which ranks 28th in the ratio of infant breastfeeding in Indian states. Women who start breastfeeding their babies within the first hour of birth have a higher chance of successfully and fully breastfeeding their babies for the first 6 months. Breastfeeding for the first 6 months keeps the baby healthy and also ensures her full development.
Improvement
To improve nutrition, nutrition level can be enhanced by bringing changes in nutrition-related practices at the community level. Some of the significant traditions of proper diet should be kept in mind, such as:
>Keeping your baby warm and avoiding any external infection.
>A pregnant woman must take two hours of rest and an additional dose during pregnancy.
>Vaccination should be done according to age.
>The mother should keep taking nutritious food.
>Food should be used in such foods which contain more and more iron, it should always be kept in mind that both mother and child should always use 'iodized' salt.
Benefits of breastfeeding
There are many benefits of breastfeeding. There is no better milk for the newborn than mother's milk. This brings many benefits to both mother and child. There are many benefits of breastfeeding:
> Mother's milk is digestible, which protects the baby from stomach upset.
> Breastfeeding is also helpful in increasing the immunity of the baby.
> Breastfeeding keeps asthma and ear-related diseases under control, as mother's milk creates resistant skin in the baby's nose and throat.
> Breastfeeding reduces the risk of stomach and respiratory tract diseases, blood cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure in later stages of life.
> Breastfeeding also enhances the intellectual capacity of the infant because the emotional relationship between the breastfeeding mother and her baby is intensified.
> Lactating mothers have a lower risk of breast or uterine cancer.
> Researches have proved that long-term breastfed babies can survive obesity much later in life.
> Elements found in breast milk improve metabolism.
> Whatever food the mother has during pregnancy or during breastfeeding becomes a favorite for the baby later.
> The D.H.A. and A.A. fatty acids found in breast milk play an essential role in the development of brain cells.
> Breastfeeding (Intelligence Quotient) is well developed.
Difference between artificial milk and mother's milk
Artificial milk may try to emulate the quality of mother's milk, but it cannot be simulated in the real sense. This is because the mother's milk has many properties, which is impossible to follow. In artificial milk, ingredients like mother's milk, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and vitamins, etc. are added, but their quantity remains fixed. Their number in mother's milk varies. Sometimes mother's milk remains thick, sometimes it is thin, sometimes milk is less than sometimes more, it changes soon after birth and after a few weeks or months after birth. Due to this, the quantity content present in the milk varies, and it is a law made by nature that the juice of the mother changes with the age of the child. Apart from physical quality, mother's milk has many biological properties, which artificial dairy does not have, for example, attachment between mother and child by giving breast milk, immunity from mother to child disease, and others. Despite this, for those mothers who cannot get their juice, then this is the support of this animal or artificial dairy. It has been mentioned elsewhere.
Breastfeeding Best Available Food
Breastfeeding is the best available food for the baby and caters to all the needs of the baby. Breastfed babies tend to have the most balanced diet and are less susceptible to infection. Protein, essential fatty salts, and other vital substances necessary for the development of the child's brain are found only in mother's milk. Breastfeeding should only continue for six months. Pregnant women and other family members visiting antenatal clinics should be told about the benefits of breastfeeding so that if a woman wants to deliver at home, no child is denied the benefits of breastfeeding. Are. Breastfeeding can only save a lot of lives from diseases like malnutrition and infection. Although breastfeeding rates are high, potentially harmful habits such as giving other food before breastfeeding, delaying breastfeeding, throwing away colostrum, and feeding the baby in between meals are still common. Women should eat well and rest during pregnancy and after childbirth. Almost all women, including women with malnutrition, can breastfeed well.
Malnourished children are at higher risk of infection. Breastfeeding will also provide comfort to the baby. A child under two years of age is entirely dependent on his mother. If she becomes pregnant again, she will not be able to take adequate care. If a woman becomes pregnant within two years, she will also be deficient in iron and essential micronutrients.
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