Public health officials from Okere District Health Directorate of the Eastern Region, have addressed longstanding cultural and traditional norms held about exclusive breastfeeding after schooling Akode lactating mothers on proper positioning during breastfeeding.

This took place at a public health education programme organised by The Hunger Project in collaboration with the Okere District Health Directorate, to mark this year's breastfeeding week at Akode on the theme: Protecting breastfeeding: a shared responsibility.

Lactating mothers were taken through the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, mother and child positioning during breastfeeding that help babies suckle breast milk properly as well as misconceptions held about exclusive breastfeeding.

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

Public health workers who addressed the mothers, dispelled several long-held misconceptions about breastfeeding such as big breasts producing more milk than small breasts as well as giving water and food to babies in the first six months of life instead of breast milk.

Mrs Hectoria Yvonne Arhinful, Public Health Nurse, Okere District Health Directorate, said the misconceptions among lactating mothers about exclusive breastfeeding were not helping matters and thwarted efforts of health programmes.

"Mostly, in the olden days we give water and food to babies, and our old mothers too have the notion or the mindset that if you don't give water you make the child thirsty, you don't give the child food you make the child hungry."

She also said that long-held traditional notion was not a fact as it could not be scientifically proven, saying, with breastfeeding, the milk contained was a complete diet in the breast.

"If we feed babies with breast milk, it is going to help their growth, it is going to help the mother get more money, because you are not going to spend on food, and you get more time for the child and the family."

Mr Asante Rexford Forster, Nutrition Officer, Okere District Health Directorate, said most lactating mothers held the view that big breasts produced more milk than small breasts, saying the differences in the size of breasts did not matter the volume or quality of milk it could produce.

He said it was not scientifically proven that big breasts produced more milk than small breasts and urged mothers and families to disabuse their minds about that wrong perception.

"It is just that those with big breast have more supporting fat than those with small breast but the quantum and quality of breast milk that is produced in the small breast and the big breast are the same," he stressed.

He also said some mothers harboured the idea that their babies could not be breastfed when working as some go to the far extent of taking sponge, soap and water to clean the breast before feeding their children.

"But science will tell you that the breast always cleanses itself, so whether you are sweating or whether you are working since your child shows signs of being ready to be breastfed, you give it."

Ms Fidalia Agbedanu, Community Health Volunteer, Akode, highlighted to the Ghana News Agency the importance of breastfeeding and advised mothers to practise exclusive breastfeeding to realise its optimum benefits.

She said exclusive breastfeeding practice helped mothers and families save more money as less money is spent on baby foods, and ensured complete development of children as well as protect children against terminal diseases and also served as family planning like child spacing.

Mr Charles Dzamesi, The Hunger Project officer, advised the mothers to take breastfeeding education seriously and that it was a shared responsibility to ensure the complete health and growth of children for national development.

"If our children are healthy they will not fall sick and they will grow stronger and participate in economic activities for national development," he added.

About 127 countries participated in this year's breastfeeding week.

Health experts say, for optimal infant and young child feeding, mothers should initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth, breastfeed exclusively for the first six months, and continue to breastfeed for two years or more, while providing nutritionally adequate, safe, and age-appropriate solid, semisolid, and soft foods.

Breast milk alone contains all the nutrients, antibodies, hormones, and antioxidants an infant needs to thrive.

It protects babies from diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections, stimulates their immune systems and response to vaccination, and may confer cognitive benefits.