A baby can be raised perfectly well with a bottle and formula, but breastfeeding is the best food What can a newborn take? Is a cheap and safe vaccine. Science has shown that breastfeeding reduces the risk of sudden infant death. It also prevents diseases such as otitis, asthma, type 1 diabetes, bronchiolitis and pneumonia.
Almost half of the mothers (48%) around the world – a percentage that has increased ten percentage points in the last decade – opts for exclusive breastfeeding. However, according to the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP), There is a lack of support measures in companies to breastfeed without giving up work. Pediatricians are asking for flexible schedules, part-time work or teleworking so that mothers can balance breastfeeding and work.
Only 20% of countries require companies to offer employees paid breaks and facilities for breastfeeding or expressing milk.
World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated in August. But Europe has decided to change it to the week of October 9 to 15 so that it does not coincide with the summer holidays. This year’s motto is ‘Breastfeeding and working: let’s make it happen!’.
Less than half of children under six months of age are exclusively breastfed, despite health recommendations.
500 million mothers
According to World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, more than 500 million working women do not benefit from essential maternity protection measures. Only the 20% of countries They require companies to offer employees paid breaks and facilities for breastfeeding or expressing milk. Less than half of children under six months of age are exclusively breastfed, despite health recommendations.
“Women would not have to choose between working or exclusively breastfeeding”
Sara Ares, doctor and member of the AEP
“Many women want to prolong breastfeeding beyond the period of maternity leave, which in Spain is 16 weeks. We should give them all the facilities possible to be able to combine it with work. They wouldn’t have to choose between one thing or another. Breastfeeding has very important benefits for the mother and the baby and all the social agents that surround the mother and her child, from her partner and family to the doctors and her company, should put facilities to maintain and prolong it “all the time necessary,” says the doctor Susana Arescoordinator of the breastfeeding area of the AEP nutrition and breastfeeding committee.
Measures to facilitate breastfeeding
Pediatricians recommend a series of measures to companies, such as providing rest periods so that mothers can breastfeed their children or express milk in an “adequate, intimate and dignified” space. Other initiatives are flexibility in schedules or teleworking. The WHO and Unicef go further and also propose offering paid maternity leave of a minimum of 18 weeks and, preferably, six months.
These measures -adds Dr. Ares- not only benefit the mother, but also to the company. “Facilitating breastfeeding in the work environment improves women’s level of commitment to the company, reduces absenteeism, promotes a higher rate of return to work after maternity leave, increases performance and produces less loss of qualified workers for reasons linked to motherhood,” explains the specialist.
Benefits of breast milk
Provided with nutrients in both quality and quantity, breast milk promotes the baby’s sensory and cognitive development. It protects you from infectious and chronic diseases common in childhood such as diarrhea, otitis or pneumonia and helps a faster recovery thanks to the transfer of antibodies from the mother. Adolescents and adults who were breastfed as children are less likely to be overweight, high blood pressure, or obese.
Breastfeeding difficulties
Despite its obvious benefits, breastfeeding It’s not as easy as they paint it. It’s quite an art. And very complicated. ‘The breastfeeding book’, by the doctor and popularizer José María Paricio, assures that up to 70% of mothers may have some type of difficulty breastfeeding, especially during the first month. The most common problems are cracks in the nipple, pain, extreme tiredness and the perception of insufficient milk. In the psychological field, one suffers emotional fatigue and a desperate feeling of not being a good mother, something absolutely false and unfair.
Some popularizers have begun to ask ‘lactivists’ (breastfeeding activists) not to put so much pressure on mothers. This is the case of the journalist and popularizer Eva Milletwhose latest book (‘Mammal Mothers’) dismantles many myths of so-called natural parenting and remember that breastfeeding is great, but it doesn’t make babies better.
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In a recent interview with EL PERIÓDICO, Millet made it clear that his book does not question that breastfeeding is, indeed, the best food a baby can eat. The problem, in her opinion, is that the studies are biased.
“In the most developed countries, in general, breastfeeding is practiced by educated, upper-middle class women. Logically, these children are healthier and have better academic performance. But because of the social sphere to which they belong. In the first year of life, breastfeeding reduces the possibility of stomach infections. However, there are also robust studies that claim that the scientific results on the benefits of breastfeeding on the baby’s long-term health have been exaggerated. The ‘lactivists’ of the 21st century are convinced that Breastfeeding is the only valid way to feed to the baby and thanks to her it will be achieved a better world“concludes Millet.