By Josephine Agbonkhese

To mark the 2023 World Breastfeeding Week, Lactation Consultant/Founder, Milk Booster and MilkBank, Nigeria, Dr. Chinny Obinwanne, has reiterated the need for working mothers to continue breastfeeding even after the expiration of their compulsory maternity leave.

Speaking in line with the theme of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week dubbed ‘Enabling Breastfeeding: Making a Difference for Working Parents’, she noted that breastfeeding helps a mother lose weight as it takes a huge amount of calories to manufacture breast milk.

According to her, the more breast milk a mother’s body produces, the more calories it will consume from her body fat storage to make it. As long as the mother is eating the right nutrient-dense meals, she will notice weight loss.

Stressing that there was need for continuous sensitisation of the public with online and offline education, Obinwanne further enunciated the importance of breastfeeding even to the baby.

She said: “Breast milk provides a lot of immediate and long-term benefits that follow the baby as they grow to become toddlers, teenagers, and a grown adult.

“It reduces the risk of so many illnesses and diseases in a newborn; from respiratory issues like pneumonia to gastrointestinal issues like vomiting and diarrhea, including reducing the risk of allergy, eczema, asthma, and atopic dermatitis.

“Further more, it keeps babies alive by lowering the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) in premature babies.

“For a newborn, the first milk (colostrum) which is loaded with antibodies coats the lining of the gut, preventing the passage of bacteria and viruses into the body and causing system of the baby. Breast milk provides the perfect nutrition that contains everything a baby needs for the first six months of life. This is aside the fact that it is also beneficial to the overall health of mothers.”

Taking into consideration the inability of some nursing mothers to produce enough milk for their babies, Obinwanne recommended the use of pasteurised milk rather than them opting for formula.

“According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, pasteurised donor human milk is the best option when babies do not have access to their mother’s own milk,” she added.

Speaking on the challenges of running a milk bank in Nigeria, she noted that lack of funding plays a huge role.

“Without any external funding, The Milk Booster has been funding the cost implication of running the Milk Bank from paying workers to the blood screening of each donor mum, the numerous pre-pasteurisation and post-pasteurisation milk screening, and running the facility.

“I remember the number of times we had a post-pasteurisation milk sample test come back and not clear. We kept going back and forth with the team in South Africa that helped us so much to get past that hurdle,” she said.

She added that awareness was another challenge.

“We have got 20 recipient requests for human milk but after we engage them and do the paperwork, the majority of them do not proceed to the final steps of receiving the milk.

“The Milk Bank is hoping to fill the gap of awareness and knowledge by partnering with bodies and organisations that represent different arms of healthcare practice that are in line with what we are doing, to increase awareness of the need for milk banks in our community,” she said.

Dr. Obinwanne also encouraged new mothers going back to work to start preparing early from the first two weeks after delivery on how to breastfeed and store the milk for the baby.

She advised: “I tell new mums to start pumping early by adding an extra pump session every day to their baby’s feeding demand and start storing the milk they express during that extra pump session.

“They should store it in their freezer; which can last for six months minimum. With this extra pump session, many mums already have a milk stash by the time they are heading back to work in three months.

“I also advise them to have a difficult conversation with their HR to discuss break times and pumping breaks. At this point, the response varies amongst mums and the organisation they work for. I, however, tailor the plan according to what is feasible per mum.

“Some mums have had to break their lunch break into three parts to enable them to pump three times at work. Others have appreciated our low-sound wearable breast pump, which they can have inserted into their bra and pump while working and nobody notices they are pumping.

“Then we consistently help them maximise their efforts with our lactation treats so that they produce more volume of breast milk. We also introduced a thermal sensor breast milk storage bag and cooler bag to enable them to store their pumped milk safely for their babies.”