THE Medical Director, General Hospital, Badagry, Dr Olatunde Bakare, has urged nursing mothers to constantly breastfeed their children.
Olatunde made the appeal at the World Breastfeeding Week Celebration, organised by the hospital on Friday in Badagry, Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the event was, “Enable Breastfeeding: Making a Difference for Working Parents”.
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According to the Director, breast milk is essential for babies to grow healthy.
“If you want your children to grow healthy and intelligently, then feed your children exclusively with breast milk. Research has shown that children fed with breast milk grow healthier, stronger and more intelligent,” he said.
Bakare further urged female residents of Badagry, to always attend the general hospital for their antenatal clinics.
He stressed that the Lagos State Government had provided free treatment for pregnant women from antenatal period to delivery.
“Even a caesarian section is free and this is part of the palliative by the Federal Government to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal,” he disclosed.
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In her lecture, the Chief Matron of the hospital, Mrs Olayinka Alabi, said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) started the World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) in 1992.
Mrs Alabi said the programme started when it was discovered that women were no longer breastfeeding their babies.
She said that the theme of the 2023 programme was a kind of appeal to employers of labour, to allow women to breastfeed their babies.
Alabi noted that based on WHO’s record, over 44 percent of women are not breastfeeding their babies regularly and exclusively.
She said that babies should be breastfed exclusively from their birth to six months, before they are given other foods.
According to the chief matron, breastfeeding provides a special bond between mothers and their babies.
In her closing remarks, Mrs OpeOluwa Amu, the Apex Nurse of the hospital, appealed to nursing mothers to spread the gospel of breastfeeding.
According to her, babies should be breastfed for two years before they are stopped.
The event was graced by the Consultant Paediatrician, Dr Emem Udoh; the Nursing Administrator, Mr Nofiu Obanla, many pregnant women and nursing mothers. (NAN)
