Recently I had the good fortune of being invited to attend an all-day seminar about breastfeeding, presented to the medical community of Macau. Dr. Jack Newman, a world-renowned expert on breastfeeding presented four lectures throughout the day, which I will comment on in later posts.
The general theme of his advice to the Macau medical community was that, in order to improve breastfeeding outcomes here, a few things need to change from a government and hospital policy standpoint. The WHO recommends children be breastfed to the exclusion of all other foods until approximately 6 months of age, and continue to breastfeed in conjunction with solid foods until at least 2 years of age. I don’t have the current stats for Macau on hand, and I will research them and get back on this, but it is safe to say that from the social reaction of most mothers to this idea, it is not common that Macau babies are getting the full benefit of their mother’s milk.
Among Dr. Newman’s recommendations: extend maternity leave from employment. Compared with Canada (52 weeks) and some European countries (3 years), Macau has mandated 8 weeks maternity leave. This does not leave enough time for mothers to exclusively breastfeed their children until they are old enough to eat some solid foods while their mothers are away working.
In addition to the maternity leave, mothers and newborns will be able to eliminate certain breastfeeding challenges at the outset if they are able to room-in together at the hospital after birth. Keeping newborns in separate rooms from their mothers disrupts bonding, and affects a baby’s ability to better handle early challenges of hypoglycemia and jaundice. Babies and mothers belong together from minute one, for a wide variety of reasons, not insignificantly because it helps them to establish their breastfeeding relationships. They learn how to communicate easily and effectively about feeding, and can feed on demand, rather than on a schedule or depend on another person to notify them when their baby is crying.
For more of his comments (and a brief soundbite from yours truly!) watch the segment on TDM English language news starting at 8:20 here.
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