Public Health Officials in the Okere District of Eastern Region have cautioned lactating mothers against wrong positioning during breastfeeding as it can lead to severe child malnourishment and declining weight.

Mothers have also been advised to exclusively breastfeed their children in the first six months of their lives to reap the optimum benefit of exclusive breastfeeding.

"Many at times, observations from nurses are that most children are becoming malnourished, their weights are declining," Mr Asante Rexford Forster, Nutrition Officer, Okere District Health Directorate, said.

"This is because their mothers are not positioning and attaching their babies to the breast very well."

Mr Forster was speaking during a health programme organised by The Hunger Project in collaboration with the Okere District Health Directorate to celebrate this year's breastfeeding week in Akode in the District, which was held on the theme: "Protecting breastfeeding: a shared responsibility."

The mothers were taking through the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, mother and child positioning during breastfeeding to help children suckle breast milk properly and misconceptions about exclusive breastfeeding.

It aimed at educating lactating mothers in the Akode Epicentre to help them improve exclusive breastfeeding practices and promote good nutrition for their young children.

Mr Forster said it was important communities and families were educated on how mothers positioned and attached their babies to the breast for their children to suckle the breast well and get enough food to grow very well.

He explained that during breastfeeding the mother and the child should not feel any pain, adding, the mother should sit comfortably in a chair and put the baby on her.

"If the baby is suckling the left breast the mother should support the baby with the left hand, lift the baby a little, the belly of the child should touch the mother's belly, and the chin of the baby should touch the breast of the mother," he added.

"If you do that the mouth of the baby will be widely opened to suckle the breast and not the nipple."

He said lactating mothers needed not to wake up to sit before breastfeeding their babies as they could equally place themselves side by side to feed their children.

He warned against mothers who feed their children in wrong positions, such as throwing the breast at the back or under the armpit, which could affect the appropriate development of children with severe consequences.

"I saw a mother, she threw the breast behind her to be given to the baby at the back, and another child was even being fed under the armpit of a mother."

"I don't know where such positions come from but it is not proper, if you do that the child will be suckling the breast alright but will not be getting the breast milk, the child will then suck the air and the tummy will be bloated."

Mrs Hectoria Yvonne Arhinful, Public Health Nurse, Okere District Health Directorate, highlighted the importance of exclusive breastfeeding as it provided foods with a complete balance of nutrients from six months to two years.

She said those children were more likely to survive, do better at school and be more productive throughout their lives.

"I will entreat all mothers to practise exclusive breastfeeding and even if they can they have to give their children breast milk for two years or even more."

She said initiating a child to breastfeeding during birth serve as the first immunisation that protected the child from infections and also induces the early release of the placenta.

She said breastfeeding held many benefits, including family planning to mothers as a mother gives the child breast milk persistently, she would not get pregnant within that particular period.

She explained: "As you give the breast milk mostly at night, there are some hormones that work around to help prevent the release of ovaries to meet the man's semen to make a baby."

Mr Charles Dzamesi, The Hunger Project officer, asked mothers to take breastfeeding education very seriously and highlighted the importance of the world breastfeeding week with about 127 countries participating in the commemoration.

He said breastfeeding was a shared responsibility, adding; "If our children are healthy they will not fall sick and they will grow stronger and participate in economic activities for national development."

Health experts say currently in Ghana, only one child in every two (52 per cent) is put to the breast within the first hour of life and the rate of exclusive breastfeeding rate of children less than six months is reducing, as over 20 per cent of children are given water in the first six months of their lives.