Natho Brown
It was a colourful day indeed as Rotary Club of Port Harcourt-Orbit, in partnership with the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital Breastfeeding Committee commemorated the 2023 Annual World Breastfeeding Day.
The World Breastfeeding Week is set aside by the World Health Organisation, every year to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world.
The theme of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week, “Enabling Breastfeeding, Making a Difference for Working Parents”, is focused on enlightening parents and the public on the benefits of optimal breastfeeding practices, and supporting working parents to breastfeed their babies at home, and in the workplace.
The event, which held at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), Old GRA, Port Harcourt, was a beauty to behold, and relief for many breastfeeding mothers, as Rotarians went round the clinics and wards, sensitizing the various hospital publics.
At the Childrens Clinic of the hospital, the President of Rotary Club of Port Harcourt, Rotarian Anita Ogona, spoke with Newswriter.
“This week we are celebrating the world breastfeeding week where we enlighten people all over the world about the benefits of breastfeeding.
“We are here to let you know that everybody can breastfeed: housewife, working class mother, you can breastfeed your children effectively.
“Breast milk is the best for your children. Removal of subsidy no dey affect breast milk. Breast milk is natural”, she said.
Rotarian Ogona encouraged breastfeeding mothers to practice exclusive breastfeeding, as she doled out some practical tips to help make breastfeeding easier for breastfeeding mothers.
Outlining the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, she said, babies undergoing exclusive breastfeeding grow healthier, and hardly fall sick.
According to her, “Rotary is a charitable organization. We render services to humanity, and we encourage women to breastfeed.
“We will provide the aspects that we know we can by partnering them to talk, encourage the mothers and educate them on why they should practice exclusive breastfeeding”.
Explaining the 2023 theme, a staff of RSUTH said “Enabling breastfeeding” means, fathers are to support breastfeeding mothers morally, financially and otherwise, to enable mothers engage in effective breastfeeding.
High point of the event was the distribution of free multivitamins to mothers at the Children’s Clinic, while some mothers were taught how to express and preserve breast milk for further use.
