Express breastfeeding boon to working women: Experts
Despite knowing that exclusive breastfeeding is compulsory for better children and their health, many working women are not following it due to odd working hours and lack of time. In this case, express breastfeeding can be a better option, experts say.
Neeti Aryal Khanal, 31-year-old working woman, started feeding bottle-milk to her two-month old child. She also used to feed her child honey and other stuff like paste of cashew nuts, pistachios and Janma Guthi. A doctor advised her not to feed bottle-milk. However, she did not heed the doctor’s words due to of lack of time to breastfeed her child. She used to suffer from an overflow of breastmilk.
“I thought that when my child reaches six months of age I can feed her anything and that I would rid myself from hectic tasks,” said Khanal. But, when she went to Australia on a trip she met a working woman there who was express breastfeeding her child. The woman told Khanal that she used to collect milk from her breast in a clean cone and keep it in a safe place so that other family members at home could feed the milk to her child with the help of a spoon in her absence.
Khanal was impressed with this method of breastfeeding. After returning to Kathmandu, when she delivered a second child she consulted the doctor and applied the same method to her second child till six months. “My second child seems healthier than my first,” said Khanal.
Khanal is a case in point. According to the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), over 70 percent of infants below six months of age are not breastfed properly in the country due to lack of awareness among mothers. The standard of the World Health Organization (WHO) has it that all infants should be fed exclusively breastmilk for six months after their birth.
The WHO brought the concept of express breastfeeding in Nepal 15 years ago, but Nepali doctors did not promote it, said Laxmi Tamang of Aadharbhut Prasuti Sewa Kendra, an organisation working for nursing mothers.
According to Tamang, express breastfeeding can be done in two ways — either through one’s own hand or by pumping tools available at department stores.
Tamang said one should keep the milk in a hygienic place using clean tools at normal room temperature. In winter, the milk should warmed by adding warm water but one should not boil the milk, she said.
Posted on: 2010-12-15 09:32
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Abin
Shit! The note is lost. I had better avoid extemporising. ...have been told not to blab.
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