Picture: Internet
The eastern city of Santiago de Cuba is commemorating World Breastfeeding Week with health promotions in hospitals and communities and positive results in the Maternal-Infant Attention Program (PAMI).
The representative of PAMI in Santiago de Cuba province Yofaidy Perez told the press that they will offer conferences and talks until next Tuesday to promote knowledge on the benefits of breastfeeding at least until the sixth month of life and as a complementary way the following 18 months.
The ways of incorporating other nutrients after the first six months is one of the aspects to socializing, not only for babies and women but also for other members of the family, said Perez, while highlighting the work in the territory to promote breastfeeding as a guarantee to the health and quality of life of the baby.
Mothers milk contributes to the babies’ physical and mental health, decrease in overweight, reduction in the risks of chronic ailments associated with obesity, among other benefits and is considered the most complete nutrition for the first two years of life as it contains protein, hormones, fat, vitamins and immune-globin.
Malnutrition and anemia are some examples of the multiple disorders that can be prevented with mothers milk, and according to many experts, if breastfeeding for over two years, protects the mother from breast cancer and ovary cancer.
Santiago de Cuba has had a provincial Maternal Milk Bank since December 16th 2011 located in the Dr. Juan Bruno Zayas Clinical-Surgical Hospital dedicated to promote, maintain, protect and prolong the exclusive maternal milk until the sixth month of life of the baby.
Initiated by UNICEF, World Health Organization, the Public Health Ministers from Cuba and Brazil, in addition to the Ibero-American Network of Human Milk Banks, this institution bases its work in the principle of the mothers’ voluntary donations once they have breastfed their babies.
Premature underweight babies that do not suck correctly, immune deficiencies, surgical treatment, mainly of their digestive tracks, in addition to newborns whose mothers cannot breastfeed due to serious conditions or are HIV/AIDS carriers are some of the receptors of the donated milk.
The results of the national health program in Santiago de Cuba and other provinces is systematic in order to guarantee breastfeeding, which has had positive indicators in the PAMI.
The province has so far this year an infant mortality rate of 2.7 per one thousand live births, which has been the best result, compared to the same periods in the past years.
Author: Leydis Tasse Magana
