To make the whole world aware in this World Breastfeeding Week of the extreme importance of achieving correct breastfeeding figures to improve the health and life expectancy of children, the World Health Organization has made a strong statement: breastfeeding would save a million and a half lives a year.
The statement is chilling but responds to a definitive reality. Breast milk is the most suitable and safe food for human babies exclusively up to six months and up to two years minimum combined with adequate complementary feeding. The World Health Organization states that breastfeeding is the most effective practice to prevent deaths in children under 5 years worldwide.
They add that about one fifth of the deaths of babies under one month could be avoided if all newborns received breast milk from the first hour of life.
In addition, they clearly state that the IQ average is up to six points higher, on average, in children who were breastfed for at least seven to nine months over those who only received breast milk less than one month. The issues of health, disease prevention and safety of breast milk were assumed, but the blunt statement of the World Health Organization that artificial milk is related to a lower intellectual capacity has surprised me despite having read enough studies about.
For mothers who have given artificial milk to their children for whatever reason, read these statements of the highest health protection agencies understand that it is a cause of pain and anger.
All parents want to give the best to our children and the decision not to breastfeed is usually taken after real battles. But as long as there is no real awareness that artificial milk is related to health problems and less intellectual development, breastfeeding cannot be encouraged with certainty, since it is the whole society, health workers and official bodies that should seek true support. , help and information to mothers.
Exclusive breastfeeding from the first hour of life, its maintenance for six months and its supplementation with an adequate diet are guarantees of health and survival for all. Breast milk would save a million and a half children's lives a year. But all these statements and information do not help much if they are not accompanied by true support measures for families, training in toilets and, in my opinion, greater regulation of the use of artificial milks.
Official page | World Health Organization In Babies and more | Breastfeeding would save almost 1000 lives a year in the United States, Breast milk saves lives
