The post Horlicks raises awareness on breastfeeding appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>This year, World Breastfeeding Week 2021 theme is: Protect Breastfeeding: A Shared Responsibility.
In line with the theme, Horlicks Mother’s Plus designed a campaign titled ‘Matridughdho paan-e gori shohayok poribesh,’ said a release on Wednesday.
As part of the campaign a series of activities—awareness sessions, webinar, free health check-up facilities and consultation for lactating mothers, releasing educational videos on breastfeeding in social media—were organised by engaging many prominent individuals from different fields including doctors, nutritionists, social influencers, active citizens and media personnel.
Horlicks Mother’s Plus is a nourishing beverage that is scientifically designed for pregnant and lactating mothers. Thus, as one of the premier nutrition brands of Bangladesh for pregnant and lactating mothers, the brand started to observe breastfeeding week to aid the government initiative of raising awareness.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, lack of information and many misconceptions related to breastfeeding are impacting the mental and overall health of pregnant and lactating mothers. Horlicks Mother’s Plus’s month-long campaign aimed to address such misconceptions and increase information for the mass people.
The brand developed series of educational videos highlighting the key benefits of breastfeeding, nutrition for mothers during breastfeeding and especially during the Covid-19 and encouraging fathers to be more active in supporting and helping a breastfeeding mother.
Alongside, a total of four seminars were organised in partnership with media houses, where reputed expert nutritionists and participants discussed maternal health, breastfeeding and the responsibility of the father and the society to support lactating mothers.
A webinar was also organised engaging the country’s top public health specialists, where they explained the key challenges during pregnancy and the importance of breastfeeding to improve public health. They also emphasised creating more awareness and education to continue the status of Bangladesh as a ‘green’ nation in supporting lactating mothers.
KSM Minhaj, Managing Director of Unilever Consumer Care Limited (UCL), said, ‘Despite many achievements in social development, malnutrition remains one of the most pressing issues nationally. Therefore, we strive to ensure that nutritional wellbeing is at the front and centre of everything we do. This is a proud moment for us as Bangladeshi as The World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) has congratulated Bangladesh for having achieved the status of a ‘green’ nation, along with Sri Lanka.’
Bangladesh has ranked first in the world in supporting lactating women. Only two countries out of 98 have achieved this status so far.
‘To continue this success, we must continue all the awareness programmes and create a conducive environment for pregnant and lactating mothers and offer them healthy and balanced nutrition. As our mission is to support the national agenda to combat malnutrition in all its forms, our brands will increasingly take more nutrition awareness related programmes to ensure that we leave no one behind in Bangladesh and contribute to building a heather nation,’ Minhaj said.
Unilever Consumer Care Limited is a Fast Moving Consumer Goods Company housing heritage health food drink brands like Horlicks with Bangladeshi households trusting Horlicks for over more than 50 years and still continuing to do so every day for their daily nutritional needs. With brands belonging to Horlicks family such as Standard Horlicks, Junior Horlicks, Chocolate Horlicks, Lite Horlicks, Horlicks Mother’s Plus and Horlicks Women’s Plus, along with Boost, Maltova and Glaxose-D; the company is a part of the everyday life of millions of consumers across Bangladesh. UCL is a subsidiary of Unilever, one the world’s leading suppliers of consumer-packaged goods in more than 190 countries. UCL’s purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace with a vision to grow the business, while reducing environmental footprint and increasing positive social impact, the release said.
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The bond between a mother and her child is like no other. Their first baby steps, the first awkward laughter, tiny fingers curling up on your index finger – these are memories that remains etched in your mind forever.At the core to this unique bond remains the intimate touch when the mother takes to her bosom the newborn for breastfeeding.
Nursing is a different experience for everyone and what works for one woman may not always work for another.
“There is no particular ‘easy’ way. It all depends on in which position you and your baby gets habituated. But there is a ‘right’ way to nurse,” says Doctor Punam Ganguly, a research associate in Brac.
She advises new mothers to sit in a position where they can support their back while feeding or opt for the reclining position while nursing.
These are taught by health professionals to new mothers after birth, she adds.
Initially, start by turning you your baby’s whole body toward you, chest to chest. Touch her upper lip with the nipple, and, when the baby opens her mouth wide, pull it onto your breast.
Your new born needs to get used to the position, therefore do not panic if it seems to seems to have trouble finding or staying on your nipple. Breastfeeding requires patience and lots of practice.
Another nursing technique is to hold the baby in a cradle position. Cradle the baby’s head with the crook of the arm. Sit in a chair that has supportive armrests or on a bed with lots of pillows. Rest your feet on a stool, coffee table, or other raised surface to avoid leaning down toward your baby. Be sure to support your baby’s neck and spine and check if she is lying in a horizontal or slightly angled position.
If you want to nurse the bay while lying on your side, ask someone to place several pillows behind your back for support. You can put a pillow under your head and shoulders, and one between your bent knees, too. The goal is to keep your back and hips in a straight line. With the baby facing you, draw him close and cradle his head with the hand of your bottom arm.
Besides the positions, it is also important to keep in mind several other factor while nursing an infant. Since the breasts get heavier during lactation, you should support them with your hands while your nurse. An easy way to do this would be placing four fingers underneath the breast at 9 o’clock with your thumb on top at 3 o’clock.
At the same time, it is also very important to support the child and make sure it is not straining to reach the nipple. Use the free arm or blankets to make sure the baby is not straining its neck Swaddling her gently while nursing can also put the baby at easy.
If you need to change your baby’s position or think that the baby has had enough, gently insert one finger into the corner of its mouth. A quiet “pop” means you’ve broken the suction and you can pull him away. Otherwise, trying to forcefully remove its mouth might end up in soreness for the mother.
Along with that there are many devices available in the market that has made breastfeeding easier, such as breastfeeding pumps and so on.
When a new mother breastfeeds her infant, it is a natural instinct that takes hold of her.
Like Monika Roy, a young mother, puts it: “I never thought of the reason behind my decision to breastfeed or why I chose to do it instead of opting for formula. This is just something a mother does and so did I.”
Courtesy of The Daily Star
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]]>Breastfeeding, complementary feeding both are must
Roundtable told
Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and nutritious complementary feeding must be ensured to rehabilitate around half of Bangladesh’s under-five children who are malnourished, said doctors and public health experts yesterday.
For working women, lack of awareness and time are the main barriers to breastfeeding while negligence and poverty bar the feeding of complementary food, they said.
Children can subsist solely on breast milk for the first six months of life and nutritious complementary food must follow till the age of two to aid physical and mental growth, they observed at a roundtable.
Brac, The Daily Star and Civil Society Alliance for SUN, Bangladesh jointly organised the roundtable, “Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Practices in the Community”, at The Daily Star Centre.
Presenting a keynote, Dr Mohammad Raisul Haque, Brac Health programme manager, said only 64 percent of the country’s mothers provide exclusive breastfeeding to their children for the first six months.
Dr Rukhsana Haider of Alive and Thrive said, “From our experience in promoting exclusive breastfeeding since 1990s, we think 100 percent implementation is not possible. Around 30 percent of urban mothers cannot exclusively breastfeed their children because they work.
“Moreover researches carried out by Alive and Thrive in both urban and slum areas show that families spend their money buying snacks, fruits and junk foods for children but how much nutrition would they complement with these?”
Dr Tahmeed Ahmed, director of Centre for Nutrition and Food Security, ICDDR, B, said stunting (caused by malnutrition) rate among under-five Bangladeshi children is 41 percent while it is 40 and 33 percent in Sudan and Uganda.
Bringing all mothers into providing exclusive breastfeeding and nutritious complementary food can reduce the rate, he said.
However, ensuring nutritious complementary food is difficult as 30 percent of the country’s population is suffering from food insecurity. To these people, small fish and eggs are luxury items, he added.
“We also need to improve the social safety net programmes and promote nutrition-specific intervention,” he said.
Dr Iqbal Kabir, vice-chairperson of Bangladesh Breastfeeding Foundation, said, “Stunting occurs mainly due to a lack of breastfeeding followed by inadequate consumption of complementary food.”
Zeba Mahmud, country director of Micronutrient Initiative, said the lack of protein-based complementary food leads to childhood anaemia, a deficiency affecting Bangladesh at the same rate since 1990s.
Dr Ferdousi Begum, country manager of Family Health International-360, said there are many instances where married women, who were physically and mentally not ready for marriage, are entering “pregnancy” status.
These women are not aware of antenatal care and have no decision-making ability in the family to introduce adequate complementary food, she said.
“Intra-family decision making is very important as mothers must decide on buying necessary complementary food instead of the father solely making the decisions,” said Dr Shahed Rahman, national nutrition coordinator of Care Bangladesh.
Kaosar Afsana, Brac Health director, said, “Exclusive breastfeeding rate has significantly reduced child mortality rate in Bangladesh. It is worth celebrating that Bangladesh has joined this global shift in stunting declination.”
The Daily Star Op-Ed and Strategic Issues Editor Brig Gen (retd) Shahedul Anam Khan moderated the discussion.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
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