Imphal, August 05: 'Even if I want to breast-feed by child to its heart content, I could never do so even for a single day because of the nature of my work', said a woman vegetable seller and lactating mother of a six-month child said.

As in previous years, the Breast-feeding Week is being observed all over the world since August 1 for this yesr under the theme of 'Breast-feeding Week: The first hourSave one million babies' with the main objective of encouraging breast-feeding newly born children by their mothers and spread awareness of its importance among the mothers, families, communities as well as at the Government level.

Secretary of Breast-feeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI), Manipur State Branch Dr Shyamkumar Laishram said for the last 5-6 years, the BPNI Manipur State Branch has been spreading awareness on the importance of breast-feeding among the people in Manipur.

On the other hand, the Anganwadi workers under the ICDS of Social Welfare Department and the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) under National Health Mission have also been launching similar campaign in both the rural and urban areas.

In accordance to the report of the National Family Health Survey Phase-III 2005-06, the rate of breast-feeding among the children of 5 months old in Manipur by their mothers in urban area is 71.6 percent and 57.9 percent in rural area.

However, three years before the 2005-06 survey, the rate of breast-feeding of child within I hour of its birth by their mothers in Manipur was 57.2 percent which include 58.4 percent in the urban and 56.4 percent in rural area.

Dr Shyamkumar said that there is no mothers who cannot lactate, so every mother should breast-feed their child properly and regular without any hesitation or fear of inability of producing milk because the antibody contain in the mother's milk can protect the child from numerous diseases in future apart from the fact that the mother's milk has all the required nutrients for the child.

Moreover, breast-feeding can prevent possible complication of excessive bleeding after child birth, help in maintaining space between two births and reduces the chances of suffering from breast and ovary cancer and anaemia by the suckling mothers.

The quantity of milk produced by breast-feeding mothers would also be more.

Breast-feeding during night time also help in excreting the required hormone for producing more milk.

After birth, the child should be breast-fed compulsorily for 6 months continuously, Dr Shyamkumar said, adding that child should be breast-fed for 8 to 10 hours daily or more in accordance to the need of the suckling child.

Mothers should also breast-feed their child with the colostrumrich breast milk within 30 to 60 minutes of giving birth, Dr Shyamkumar.

To encourage breast-feeding, the Government has been providing maternity leave for 135 days to its women employees.

However, there is no such benefits for women working in private institutions like schools, even hospitals and other such institutes.

Women in unorganised sectors have also not been able to breast-feed their children due to various constraining factors.

In view of the difficulties faced by women in breast-feeding their children at work places, Dr Shyamkumar suggested setting up creches attached to the work places.

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