March News

There has been a lot of debate on our social platforms surrounding breastfeeding vs bottle feeding. One might wonder why we would invest so much in educating mothers on this issue. People are often surprised when I mention the topic. Or activists for breastfeeding are branded as ‘hippies and Nazis’. Yes, I have been called both. Let me explain my views as endorsed by our own Department of Health, by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF.

A middle class mother in urban areas in Europe has the benefits of antenatal education, of clean running water, of sterilising equipment, enough money to buy formula milk, help and resources nearby. She would be (one would hope) properly educated around the benefits of breastfeeding, on how to deal with difficulties and she would be literate in order to read and understand mixing instructions on the formula tin.

It is true that some women are unable to breastfeed for some specific medical reason; it
is also true that women don’t have the support to be successful at breastfeeding. Often problems with lack of supply are mentioned. Lack of supply can be directly linked to lack of information Bottles and pacifiers (of any kind) detrimentally affect breast milk supply.

In a new report by Save the Children, it is estimated that 830,000 babies could be saved every year if they were breastfed in the first hour of life. The colostrum, or first milk, provides potent antibodies that protects against disease. Breastfeeding in that golden hour after the baby’s birth typically leads to exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months.

So why isn't this happening? Save the Children identifies four major barriers to breastfeeding:

1) Community and cultural pressures
2) The health worker shortage
3) Lack of maternity legislation
4) Inappropriate marketing of breast-milk substitutes

In the developing world (this includes South Africa); the price paid is particularly high. A baby dies every 30 seconds for lack of protection breastfeeding provides against malnutrition and deadly disease.

What does all this have to do with Bosom Buddies? Our work is done in urban Cape Town, but we are definitely not exempt from these statistics and struggles. Anywhere in South Africa, our townships are places of poverty, struggle and hardship, particularly for the women and mothers. I always emphasise to the mothers in our support groups that the most significant hurt you can hurt a mother, is the pain of losing a child. In spite of access to medical care, all 4 of the above barriers still affect our mothers. Bosom Buddies is employing another breastfeeding expert from April, to help us to reach more women and to positively impact the infant mortality and morbidity rates in our area.