As a natural contraceptive for lactating women, Mr. Joseph Ayiah, a nutrition officer with the Central Regional Health Directorate, suggests exclusive day and night breastfeeding. He claimed that its birth control effectiveness was 98%.
He said that in order to control the synthesis and release of breastmilk and to suppress the hormones associated with the menstrual cycle in order to prevent pregnancy, lactating moms release excessive amounts of hormones when breastfeeding.
However, if the period returns, the mother may become pregnant. Protocol says that for this to happen, the mother must feed the baby every day and every night.
Breastfeeding works as a contraceptive.
Therefore, he remarked, “there is no need to fall on artificial operations for lactating mothers who desire to have normal birth spacing.”
Mr. Ayiah talked about “Step up for breastfeeding: Educate and Support” to kick off Breastfeeding Week in the region.
With a focus on healthy eating, poverty reduction, and food security, the week strives to shed more awareness on the significant benefits of nursing for the health and welfare of babies and lactating mothers.
According to the data that is available, the percentage of moms who exclusively breastfed their infants for the first six months in Ghana decreased from 63 percent to 43 percent last year, indicating that fewer mothers were doing so recently.
Some women gave their babies water and oatmeal in the first six months because they thought breast milk wasn't enough for them. Others gave their babies artificial milk substitutes.
However, Mr. Ayiah asserted that breastmilk was the best meal for all babies during their first six months of life since it contained all the nutrients in the proper ratios, promoting the baby's healthy growth and defending it against illnesses.
He stressed that nursing had a lot of benefits and said that children under the age of five were more likely to get sick and die, so they needed all the benefits of breastmilk to increase their chances of living.
Mr. Ayiah said that breastmilk is the first vaccination for babies and explained that while nursing, the mother puts antibodies into the baby's system that protects it from the diseases she has been fighting her whole life.
In addition to saving time and money, he said that nursing exclusively helped prevent illnesses that artificial milk products may otherwise induce.
So, he asked everyone involved to support the campaign and begged all mothers-to-be and mothers-to-be-to-be to only feed their babies breast milk for at least the first six months.
Dr. Kwabena Sarpong, who is the acting Central Regional Director of Health, told women who expressed breast milk to feed their babies later to be very careful so they wouldn't get sick.
“It's good to extract milk, but how can we be sure the container we're using is sterile? In order to avoid endangering our children, mothers should be educated on how to do it in a more hygienic manner, he continued.
