Breastfeeding: A Vital Emergency Response
Are you ready?
OBJECTIVES of WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK 2009
- To draw attention to the vital role that breastfeeding plays in emergencies worldwide.
- To stress the need for active protection and support of breastfeeding before and during emergencies.
- To inform mothers, breastfeeding advocates, communities, health professionals, governments, aid agencies, donors, and the media on how they can actively support breastfeeding before and during an emergency.
- To mobilise action and nurture networking and collaboration between those with breastfeeding skills and those involved in emergency response.
- Children are the most vulnerable in emergencies – child mortality can soar from 2 to 70 times higher than average due to diarrhoea, respiratory illness and malnutrition.
- Breastfeeding is a life saving intervention and protection is greatest for the youngest infants. Even in non-emergency settings, non-breastfed babies under 2 months of age are six times more likely to die.
- Emergencies can happen anywhere in the world. Emergencies destroy what is ‘normal,’ leaving caregivers struggling to cope and infants vulnerable to disease and death.
- During emergencies, mothers need active support to continue or re-establish breastfeeding.
- Emergency preparedness is vital. Supporting breastfeeding in non-emergency settings will strengthen mothers’ capacity to cope in an emergency.
This year's WABA World Breastfeeding Week, August 1-7 2009, is concentrating on breastfeeding in crisis situations.
Such emergencies are ofttimes closer than we think, presented the problematic nature of powdered infant formula, with its requirement of both hot decent liquid and excellent medicine conditions for its innocuous use. And it's so easy to conceive you are insulated from the harm it crapper cause to not breastfeed, if you live in a world where decent liquid and heating for it is common place. The simple fact is that decent liquid and heating materials are ofttimes casualties within hours in modify secondary emergencies. I once spent a week without liquid in Glasgow, when the wind froze solid, and we had to resort to bottled liquid to drink and wash in. Ice storms, much as the digit that impact Glasgow, crapper freeze you discover of liquid in a concern of hours.
Hurricane Katriona, which impact New metropolis in the USA, wrecked modify the worldly hold structures we associate with existence 'In the West'. Babies went hungry when decent liquid and heating disappeared in the floods - ofttimes the instruction disappeared too. The poorest story I've heard of Katriona to date, was the Mum left on a roof for five days with her instruction fed digit week old baby. The most distressing conception of this tale is not that the child died a few hours after rescue... it was that the Mum was then treated for engorgement of her recently post-partum breasts. That we've divorced ourselves so completely from our normative aggregation - to the saucer that mothers and new babies were existence discharged discover of maternity units into the hurricane zone, with doctors unable to feature the words \"You're putting your baby's life at risk.\" and that a distraught care watched her child tardily dehydrate to the saucer of death, with milk in her possess breasts... leaves me bewildered and speechless. Truly speechless.
Formula in child bottles in emergencies is never the answer: that much is undeniable. Sometimes, instruction presented in an easily cleaned stainless steel cup, is a short constituent solution to the care existence supported to relactate, in order to feed her child safely as she rebuilds their lives and her community. Or whilst a gran relactates to feed her grandchild if the care has died. Yet substantially intentioned hold agencies, and individuals, still set about gathering stores of donated formula, donated child bottles, and disagreeable to ship them to mothers who will check their babies grow displeased and die from much substantially intentioned recklessness. Worse, some breastfeeding mothers in communities in much calamity, ofttimes respond to the free gift discover of instruction and child bottles, by stopping breastfeeding themselves.
Donate a child bottle and instruction in emergency: donate death.
Again, that much a basic connection to our possess aggregation is severed, in times of much extreme stress and the requirement for it is at its greatest... speechless.
World Breastfeeding Week have produced a difference of excellent resources to hold this year's them, and they crapper be found here.
There is a dedication scheme for those who crapper run topical events to improve awareness of this pivotal issue. Details here.
I'll be passing on other materials in the run up to August. Please propagate information and the URLs about WBW far and panoramic - help intend the message out.
Such emergencies are ofttimes closer than we think, presented the problematic nature of powdered infant formula, with its requirement of both hot decent liquid and excellent medicine conditions for its innocuous use. And it's so easy to conceive you are insulated from the harm it crapper cause to not breastfeed, if you live in a world where decent liquid and heating for it is common place. The simple fact is that decent liquid and heating materials are ofttimes casualties within hours in modify secondary emergencies. I once spent a week without liquid in Glasgow, when the wind froze solid, and we had to resort to bottled liquid to drink and wash in. Ice storms, much as the digit that impact Glasgow, crapper freeze you discover of liquid in a concern of hours.
Hurricane Katriona, which impact New metropolis in the USA, wrecked modify the worldly hold structures we associate with existence 'In the West'. Babies went hungry when decent liquid and heating disappeared in the floods - ofttimes the instruction disappeared too. The poorest story I've heard of Katriona to date, was the Mum left on a roof for five days with her instruction fed digit week old baby. The most distressing conception of this tale is not that the child died a few hours after rescue... it was that the Mum was then treated for engorgement of her recently post-partum breasts. That we've divorced ourselves so completely from our normative aggregation - to the saucer that mothers and new babies were existence discharged discover of maternity units into the hurricane zone, with doctors unable to feature the words \"You're putting your baby's life at risk.\" and that a distraught care watched her child tardily dehydrate to the saucer of death, with milk in her possess breasts... leaves me bewildered and speechless. Truly speechless.
Formula in child bottles in emergencies is never the answer: that much is undeniable. Sometimes, instruction presented in an easily cleaned stainless steel cup, is a short constituent solution to the care existence supported to relactate, in order to feed her child safely as she rebuilds their lives and her community. Or whilst a gran relactates to feed her grandchild if the care has died. Yet substantially intentioned hold agencies, and individuals, still set about gathering stores of donated formula, donated child bottles, and disagreeable to ship them to mothers who will check their babies grow displeased and die from much substantially intentioned recklessness. Worse, some breastfeeding mothers in communities in much calamity, ofttimes respond to the free gift discover of instruction and child bottles, by stopping breastfeeding themselves.
Donate a child bottle and instruction in emergency: donate death.
Again, that much a basic connection to our possess aggregation is severed, in times of much extreme stress and the requirement for it is at its greatest... speechless.
World Breastfeeding Week have produced a difference of excellent resources to hold this year's them, and they crapper be found here.
There is a dedication scheme for those who crapper run topical events to improve awareness of this pivotal issue. Details here.
I'll be passing on other materials in the run up to August. Please propagate information and the URLs about WBW far and panoramic - help intend the message out.
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