By Justina Auta
The Federal Government in collaboration with other stakeholders have solicited for more support to promote breastfeeding in the country.
Prof. Ali Pate, Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, made the call at the 2024 World breastfeeding week event on Thursday in Abuja.
The world breastfeeding week event is themed,” Closing the Gap, Breastfeeding Support for All”.
Pate, who was represented by Mrs Daju Kachollom, Permanent Secretary, stressed the importance of breastfeeding, especially in the first hour of childbirth for the nutritional value of the baby and development.
“We are not only here in the FCT we are across the 36 states of the federation and we are trying to break a world record to support breastfeeding for women.
“We all know the importance of breastfeeding for children for the first six months, exclusive breastfeeding to their growth and development.
“The responsibility of breastfeeding is not solely on the women, but the men and other stakeholders to support in ensuring babies are exclusively breastfeed,” he said.
The minister emphasised the role breastfeeding plays in averting diseases, during emergencies, as it contained antibodies, and could fight infection.
Ms Cristian Munduate, Country Representative, UNICEF, said: “we are gathered, not just, to break a world record, but we are here to make history and send a powerful message to the world about the importance of breastfeeding.
“I want to reiterate UNICEF’s steadfast commitment to supporting Nigeria in its journey towards better child health and nutrition.
“Let today be a milestone in our collective efforts to ensure that every child has the best start in life,” she said.
Also, Dr Goodness Anyanwu, Programme Manager, Civil Society-Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), reiterated their supports towards improving access to food and nutrition security.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that mothers across the six area councils in the FCT were represented at the event.
According to the National Demographic and Health Survey 2018 (NDHS 2018), Nigeria’s exclusive breastfeeding rate is 29 per cent, indicating that only a percentage of infants aged 0–6 months are exclusively breastfed.
This means that 71 per cent of infants did not benefit from breast milk in their formative years, which is far below the global target of 50 per cent by 2025 set by the World Health Assembly (WHA). (NAN)