The Department of Community Medicine and Family Medicine, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar in collaboration with the Unicef organised a media workshop on “Breastfeeding during Covid-19 – Challenges and Solutions” on Thursday.
Stating that breastfeeding as the most crucial part of nutrition for a child, AIIMS Director Prof Gitanjali Batmanabane set the context by raising issues on challenges, misconceptions and myths related to breastfeeding during Covid-19.
Dr. Sonu H Subba threw light on how Covid could affect breastfeeding of infants and young children across the social classes due to many reasons.
Unicef Odisha Nutrition Specialist Sourav Bhattacharjee stressed on the need of breastfeeding within one hour of delivery irrespective of Covid status. However, the mother should put on facemask and practice hand hygiene before each feeding, said he.
Bhattacharjee said, “Breastfeeding prevents 20% of newborn deaths, prevents 13% of under 5 deaths, 11times lesser chance of diarrheal mortality, 15 times lesser chance of pneumonia related mortality benefits on raising IQ, prevention of non-communicable disease, lesser hospital stay of new born and maternal benefits (cancer prevention).”
Notably, the World Breastfeeding Week is observed from August 1 to 7.