BREASTFEEDING

Breast milk is the ideal food for new-borns and infants, giving them all the nutrients needed for healthy development as well as protecting babies from infection and disease. Babies who are breastfed are less likely to be overweight as children or adults. Also mothers derive immense benefit from lactation. The WCRF/ AICR Expert Report found convincing evidence that lactation protects mothers against both premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer.

BREASTFEEDING IN ASIA AND FACTORS AFFECTING IT: Both United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) advocate exclusive breastfeeding for children up to six months of age, and continued breastfeeding with complementary foods until age two. In recent, times there have been many natural disasters in many countries in Asia including, Bangkok, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Indonesia and this have affected the act of breastfeeding negatively. In emergency situations, poor water, sanitation and security situations contribute to a heightened risk of disease among children, who are vulnerable to diarrhoea, malnutrition and pneumonia. Therefore Breastfeeding is more crucial under these conditions because babies are at an increased risk of infection, disease and malnutrition. One obstacle to breastfeeding during emergencies is unsolicited or uncontrolled donations of breast-milk substitutes, which undermine breastfeeding. According to UNICEF and WHO, “It’s a huge problem, and the problem lies in the lack of knowledge among the donors on the potential harm,” said Anna Winoto, a nutrition specialist with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Indonesia. In an emergency, keeping the baby on the breast is not only about nutrition, it is giving the child that security and closeness when it is scared,” Elvira Henares-Esguerra, director of the Philippine NGO Children for Breastfeeding. The effect of these natural disasters has reduced the rate of women breastfeeding in Asia. A UNICEF`s nutrition advisor for East Asia and the Pacific, France Begin said that as little as five percent of all mothers breastfeed in Thailand, while around 10 percent do so in Vietnam. In China, only 28 percent of babies are breastfed. Additional reason for this is that baby food companies are targeting the fast- growing economies in Asia with aggressive marketing campaigns, persuading mothers to give up breastfeeding and purchase their products despite the drawbacks for their children, says France Begin. According to John McDougall MD, the most important thing to remove from human diet is dairy foods, milk inclusive. Well, the milk and cheese industries keep this important information from getting to the public, of course for maximization of profit. If artificial milk consumption is dangerous to adults' health then giving it to babies is poisonous. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJvrlwnEqbs.I chose to look at breastfeeding because development in babies cannot be complete without the right nutrition and this God given gift seems to be fizzling away.

Source: http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/81785/unicef-reports-declining-breastfeeding-rates-in-east-asia

http://www.irinnews.org/Report/87020/ASIA-Breastfeeding-more-crucial-in-emergencies