UNICEF and community women from four states started an initiative to spread awareness on breastfeeding. Iknoor Kaur met the ladies who shared details of the campaign
While some families feel that the first thing the new born child must taste is honey and goat milk, others crush almonds and nutmeg with a rock and feed it to the child with a spoon. All this is specially arranged to keep the child warm and healthy. But only a few would know that the most nutritious for the baby is a mother’s milk. To spread awareness on the benefits of mother’s milk for the new-born baby UNICEF started a campaign on breastfeeding. They chose villages of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh to spread the message. Women from these regions were selected to spread the word. These women or community champions from each state were recently here to celebrate the Breastfeeding Week.
Mrinal Pande, Chairperson, Prasar Bharati was present for a panel discussion. She shared, “A lot of women feel that mother’s milk is sour in the first few days and it is not good for baby’s health. People fear that the child may fall sick. However, there is nothing more healthy than a mother’s milk that a child needs for the first six months. It cleanses the child’s system and helps in digestion. By making women aware of this we can save millions of children who die due to malnutrition.”
Sumi Mada, a tribal woman from Jharkhand, told us her experience, “When I was a kid my chachi died and she had a small child whom we took care of. For about one and a half month we fed him normal milk from a bottle and soon he died and we didn’t understand why because according to us we gave him the nutrition we felt was needed. When I went to college I came to know that if for the first six months a child is not given a mother’s milk he can die. I then realised our mistake. When UNICEF came to our village, I felt good that I was working for the cause.”
Shobhna Patel, who is associated with Amul cooperative and works for the promotion of breastfeeding in the tribal dominated district of Valsad in Gujarat, said that people are reluctant to let go of age-old myths. However, she managed to convince people in her area with the help of videos and interactions. Today she boasts of creating 100 per cent awareness in her region.
The ladies highlighted the role of men in creating awareness. They said that it is a husband’s job to support his wife and make her breastfeed. In many villages, there is a common tradition to keep the woman away from everyone in cowsheds for 14 days after delivery. However, breastfeeding counsellor from Chhindwara region in MP, Uzma Arshi Qureshi, clarified that this is done to help the mother and child get some alone time. “This is important for the mother because the child gets the required nutrition and it also gets the warmth that it’s used to in a mother’s womb. I think this system was devised to keep the crowd away from the mother because normally even if you tell people to stay away, they come to see the baby,” she said.
Kalpana from lalitpur district in Uttar Pradesh said that many people get confused about which side should the mother feed first from. “The milk that comes out of the breast is 90 per cent water and 10 per cent milk. So the child gets good amount of water and milk. If possible feed the child from one breast on one day and change the side the next day. This helps balance the amount of thick and concentrated milk entering the child’s body.” These women from different communities have managed to reduce the malnourishment rate in their areas upto zero per cent.