Breastfeeding saving Afghan babies

By Jane Elliott BBC News Online health reporter

Afghan mothers are being told breastfeeding protects

Naseema desperately needed help.

She had already lost seven of her eleven children now the lives of her six-week old twins hung in the balance.

When Naseema, a mother in northern Afghanistan, came to her local health clinic her babies were severely malnourished.

She said she had not got sufficient breast milk to feed them, and had been feeding them sugar water with a little bit of powdered milk added whenever she could afford it.

Treatment

Within a month health workers showed Naseema how to latch the twins onto her breast and feed them.

She was also advised how an improvement in her diet, using available foods, could increase her breast milk.

She was treated for anaemia with de-worming, iron and folic acid tablets.

In the last two years the change has been considerable Regina Keith

Soon the twins were flourishing.

Her's was a tale with a happy ending. But staff from the charity Save The Children UK say many mothers in Afghanistan are not as lucky as Naseema.

Many women here do not breastfeed adequately. According to a Unicef survey in 2003, over 90% of women breastfeed but the quality of the breastfeeding practices is lacking. Their children are not getting the nutrition they need and are falling sick and even dying.

Aid workers are fighting not only against ill-health, but also cultural problems with a traditional resistance to early breastfeeding and a reluctance for females to visit the predominantly male doctors.

The dire situation in Afghanistan is further compounded by the legacy of the Taliban and the recent war.

Encouragement

Regina Keith, health policy advisor for Save The Children UK, said that in many parts of Afghanistan, Naseema's story was not uncommon.

Health workers have been teaching the women about the benefits and practicalities of breastfeeding.

"It is all about encouragement," she said.

Breastfeeding Breast milk protects infants from more than 20 illnesses and conditions, including ear infections, allergies and intestinal disorders It also helps reduce the occurrence of diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition - the leading killers for under fives globally

Mrs Keith said women were often confused about the benefits of breast milk.

She said about 40% of women do not give their baby the early milk, colostrum, because there is a misconception that it is dirty and infected.

During this time, they often feed their babies sugared water and after this it is difficult to get the baby to take breast milk or encourage the woman's milk production.

And when the women had difficulties breastfeeding, with sore and cracked nipples or suffered from infections such as mastitis, they were often unable for cultural reasons to go and see a doctor.

Mrs Keith added: "They were mostly male doctors and there is this whole cultural thing about not being seen by a man. We are training women to take up medical posts.

"Many doctors went off during the time of the Taliban and now these women doctors are gradually coming back.

"The training of midwives has also been resumed.

"In the last two years the change has been considerable."

Cultural

But finding women health professionals to work in the rural districts is still extremely difficult, due to the various cultural restrictions.

"We are training men and women from the rural villages to be Community Health Workers.

"They are working with men and women respectively in their communities to improve the breastfeeding practices in the villages."

She said that the women were also sometimes in a poor physical shape during their pregnancy and after birth and that this made breastfeeding more difficult.

Unicef estimate about one and a half million babies globally die because they are not breastfed Rosie Dodds

"Cultural beliefs and practices affect their milk production.

"Women tend to give their best food to the men and not eat enough themselves.

"And if they do not eat well, their children do not eat well.

Mrs Keith said that getting women to hospital for complicated health problems could also be problematic.

Because of the current situation in Afghanistan parts of the country are unsafe and families do not want them to travel on roads where they could be attacked.

"There were issues of security, and husbands do not always want their wives to travel."

Hospital fees may also affect access to maternity services, particularly for the poorer families.

Mrs Keith said that Save the Children UK was working with provincial hospitals of the Ministry of Health in Northern Afghanistan to strengthen the services for women needing maternity facilities, and to establish services for children with severe malnutrition.

At these facilities, women are given advice and support to improve their breastfeeding practices.

Rosie Dodds, policy research officer for the UK based National Childbirth Trust (NCT) said international schemes like this could help save the lives of children globally.

"Unicef estimates about one and a half million babies globally die because they are not breastfed.

"Even in Africa, where many of the babies are breastfed, they are often given other things too and they are more likely to get ill."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version