World Breastfeeding Week 1-7 August 2007

Posted with compliments of Worldbreastfeedingweek.org

Breastfeeding: The 1st Hour
Early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding for six months can
Save more than ONE million babies!

“It begins at birth. Our very first act after birth is to suck our mother’s…milk. This is an act of affection, of compassion. Without that act, we cannot survive. That’s clear…That’s the way of life. That’s reality.”
Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, The Art of Happiness A Handbook for Living.1998

Objectives:

• To mobilise the world to the potential for saving ONE million babies starting with ONE simple action: allowing the baby to initiate breastfeeding in the first hour of life.


• To promote immediate skin-to-skin contact of the mother and baby and continuing with exclusive breastfeeding for six months .


• To encourage ministers of health and other authorities to include the initiation of breastfeeding in the first hour as a key indicator for preventive health.


• To ensure that families know how important a baby’s first hour is, so that they can make sure that their babies are given this opportunity.


• To support the newly revised and revitalised Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), with its emphasis on integration and expansion, and on the early initiation of breastfeeding.

In the first hour of life, a baby finds her mother’s breast. Together they can do it on their own, when we respect maternal/infant physiology as we provide expert maternal child care.
This is the beginning of a life-sustaining breastfeeding relationship between mother and child.
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Visit http://breastcrawl.org/ to view the video

The Remarkable First Hour of Life
When healthy infants are placed skin-to-skin on their mother’s abdomen and chest immediately after birth, they exhibit remarkable capabilities. They are alert. They can crawl, stimulated by mother’s gentle touch, across her abdomen, reaching her breast.13 They begin to touch and massage the breast. This first gentle touch of a baby’s hand or head at the breast stimulates release of maternal oxytocin,9 thus beginning both the flow of milk and enhancing the feelings of love for the baby. Then the baby smells, mouths and licks the mother’s nipple. Finally, he or she attaches to the breast and feeds. This sequence of events is important for the survival of human young.

Optimal breastfeeding
The WHO/UNICEF Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding recommends that children breastfeed exclusively for the first 6 months of life, and then continue breastfeeding with adequate complementary food up to 2 years or beyond. Normal initiation of breastfeeding in the first minutes to first hours of life begins with skin-to-skin contact, and helps mothers and infants to achieve optimal breastfeeding. This is required in the BFHI, specifically in Step 4 of the WHO/UNICEF 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding.


Breastfeeding Rights
The Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises that every child has the inherent right to life and aims to ensure their survival and development. Breastfeeding within the first hour after delivery helps to ensure child survival. Women have a right to this knowledge and to receive the support that they need to initiate breastfeeding accordingly.

Why is skin-to-skin contact after birth and breastfeeding within the first hour of life so important?

1. The mother’s body helps to keep the baby appropriately warm, which is especially important for small and low birth weight babies.


2. The baby is less stressed, calmer and has steadier breathing and heart rates.


3. The baby is exposed first to the bacteria from the mother which are mostly harmless, or against which the mother’s milk contains protective factors. The mother’s bacteria colonise the baby’s gut and skin and compete with more harmful bacteria from health providers and the environment, and so prevent them from causing infection.


4. The baby receives colostrum for the first feeds – liquid gold, sometimes called the gift of life.


5. Colostrum is rich in immunologically active cells, antibodies and other protective proteins. Thus it serves as the baby’s first immunization. It protects against many infections. It helps to regulate the baby’s own developing immune system
   · It contains growth factors, which help the infant’s intestine to mature and function effectively. This makes it more difficult for micro-organisms and allergens to get into the baby’s body
   · It is rich in Vitamin A, which helps protect the eyes and reduce infection
   · It stimulates the baby to have bowel movements so that meconium is cleared quickly from the gut. This helps get rid of the substances in the baby's body that produce jaundice and therefore may help reduce it
   · It comes in small volumes, just right for the new baby.


6. Touching, mouthing and suckling at the breast stimulates oxytocin release – this is important for many reasons:
   · Oxytocin causes the uterus to contract. This may help delivery of the placenta and reduce maternal bleeding after the birth10
   · Oxytocin stimulates other hormones which cause a mother to feel calm, relaxed, and some would say “in love” with her baby 9
   · Oxytocin stimulates the flow of milk from the breast.


7. Women experience incredible joy with this first meeting of their child! And fathers often share this delight. The process of bonding between mother and baby begins.
   

Overall, skin-to-skin contact and early feeds with colostrum are associated with reduced mortality in the first month of life. They are also associated with increased exclusive breastfeeding and longer duration of breastfeeding in the following months, leading to improved health and reduced mortality later on as well.

Is normal breastfeeding initiation in the first hour all that is needed to guarantee continued exclusive breastfeeding?
Absolutely not! Mothers need continued support to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months. The family, health workers, traditional healers and others in the community are all important contributors to their network of support. Health providers, health visitors and others need clinical training in assessment of breastfeeding, identification of problems, as well as knowledge and skills for helping the mother to resolve difficulties. Follow-up by a health worker within 48-72 hours after the birth, again after one week, and at appropriate times thereafter provides the opportunity to intervene early if there are problems, as well as to reassure the mother when things are going well.

Implementation of the newly revised and revitalised BFHI with its 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding along with adherence to The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and Subsequent World Health Assembly Resolutions provide the support structure needed to protect, promote and support optimal breastfeeding.

The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) is a global network of individuals and organisations concerned with the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding worldwide based on the Innocenti Declarations, the Ten Links for Nurturing the Future and the WHO/UNICEF Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding. Its core partners are International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), La Leche League International (LLLI), International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA), Wellstart International and Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM). WABA is in consultative status with UNICEF and an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC).

More Breastfeeding information:
http://www.waba.org.my/
http://www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org/
http://www.earthbabies.co.za/
http://www.kellymom.com/
http://breastfeeding.blog.motherwear.com/
http://www.lalecheleague.org/SouthAfrica.html