Why Early Breastfeeding Can Prevent Death

Do you know that the breast milk can save your child if initiated within an hour after birth?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that all new-borns at term or with a gestational age greater than 32 weeks or birth weight greater than 1500 grams be put to the breast within an hour of life.

‎‎The breast milk is composed of both cellular and extracellular substances that provide active and passive protection against a number of viruses, bacteria, enterotoxin, fungi and protozoa.

These substances are particularly important for the neonate, and importantly for the preterm new-born, as the immune system is not fully developed at birth. Breast milk is also a source of omega 3 fatty acid that lead to brain development.

Early initiation of breastfeeding has benefits for survival and beyond. Breastfeeding promotes child survival, health, brain and motor development. While breastfeeding has lifelong benefits for both the mother and child, the risk of not breastfeeding are particularly pronounced early in life.

‎However, initiation of breast milk early and exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life prevents neonatal and infant deaths largely by reducing the risk of infectious diseases.

The risk is reduced because; Colostrum, the first milk and breast milk contain a large number of protective factor that provide passive and active protection to a wide variety of known pathogens. Colostrum is particularly rich in these protective.

A visit to the Adeoyo General Hospital Ibadan by a team of journalists by United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF), some nursing mothers revealed that breastfeeding was initiated on their new-borns several hours after birth while some initiated breast milk days after.

For Amawo Alima Sujade, a fashion designer, 30, whose husband is a trader said, “I started exclusive breastfeeding without water three days after birth because I could not breastfeed after Cesarean Section, (CS) operation.”

‎While Bukola Adelaja, who hails from Ibadan, was able to breastfeed her baby within an hour of birth said before her baby was given to her, the nurses had already administer glucose water to her child.

“After the glucose water, I started breastfeeding without water but later introduced baby infant formula when my baby was a month old because I stopped lactating.

“‎I asked the doctor why I can no longer lactate and he said it sometimes happens. Some drugs were given to me to help stimulate breast milk but during that period of about a week, my baby was fed on infant formula. When I started lactating again, I couldn’t continue with exclusive breastfeeding. My son now feeds on both breast milk and baby formula,” she explained.

These are just two out of millions who do not know the inherent danger posed to a new-born if the breast milk is not initiated within an hour after birth.

In her reaction to the dangers posed to new-borns who missed the early initiation of breast milk within an hour after birth, the UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, Mrs Ada Ezeogu, said that breastfeeding prevents neonatal deaths within the neonatal period (the first 28 days of life).

She said most deaths occur during the first seven days, making the first week after birth the most vulnerable time, adding that many causes to neonatal deaths are amenable to intervention and the majority can be prevented.

She said a global analysis of four million neonatal deaths, showed that infections such as sepsis, pneumonia, tetanus, and diarrhoea caused 36 percent of deaths and preterm birth an additional 27 percent.

According to her, the deleterious effects of both infections and preterm deaths can be prevented or reduced by early initiation of breastfeeding or human milk and exclusive breastfeeding, stressing the need for care givers to initiate the breast milk within an hour of birth even if the mother had CS‎.

In America, infection and low birth weight account for 56 percent of all peri-neonatal deaths which breastfeeding or human milk feeding could, in part, help to reduce. New-borns put to the breast within the first hour after birth are less likely to die during the neonatal period.

According to two recent studies involving nearly 34,000 ‎shows that the risk of death increases with increasing delay in breastfeeding initiation.

In Ghana for instance, neonates were 2.5 times more likely to die when breastfeeding initiation began 24 hours than when breastfeeding began within the first hour after birth while almost same for Nepal with 1.4 times more likely to die after 24 hours before breastfeeding initiation began.‎

While breast milk is ‎very important, it is particularly so for the smallest and most at-risk new-borns. A multicentre randomized prospective study of Infants feeding of preterm infants and necrotizing entercolitis showed that formula fed infants were 10 times more likely to contact the disease than infants fed on human milk.

‎The disease, Necrotizing Enterocolitis is a serious disease that occurs when the intestinal tissue become damaged and begins to die. It most often affects premature infants. Common symptoms include bloating or swelling in the abdomen, bloody stools, and diarrhoea.

Ezeogu said that human milk bank that pasteurised donor milk can play important role in feeding at risk new-borns, adding that the use of human milk is especially important since powdered infants formulas are not sterile products and pose particular risk for preterm and low birth weight new-borns.

She added that for Nigeria to achieve the 50 percent exclusive breastfeeding set by the United Nation (UN), she need to enforce the code of marketing of Breast Milk Substitute (BMS) and aggressive marketing by infant formula companies are currently posing a barrier to the campaign of early initiation of breast milk to a new-born and exclusive breastfeeding even as she called on all enforcement agencies to do the needful.

‎No wonder WHO referred to ‎the breast milk as the “Smarter Milk” for children and that children breastfed seven to nine months or longer have on average an Intelligent Quotient (IQ) about six points higher.