MCON celebrates World Breastfeeding Week

Team Udayavani, Aug 13, 2018, 5:31 PM IST

Manipal: College of Nursing (MCON) Manipal, MAHE celebrated ‘World Breastfeeding Week’ from August 1 to 7, 2018 at the premises here. With “Breastfeeding: Foundation of Life and Nourishment for Life” as the theme, Department of Child Health Nursing, Obstetrics and Gynaecological (OBG) Nursing and Community Health Nursing planned and conducted several programmes.

In India, three out of five new born do not get to begin breastfeeding within an hour of birth; every other woman is not able to exclusively breastfeed her baby and nine out of 10 infants do not get minimum acceptable diet  along with breastfeeding after six months of age.

Therefore, the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI) seeks to raise the level of awareness among people and focus on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through improvement in breastfeeding to achieve targets such as health, food security, education, equity, development etc.

Keeping this in mind and to raise awareness on the importance of breastfeeding, a number of activities were organized for nurses, ASHA workers, postnatal mothers and family members and the public by the faculty members and students of MCON.

To galvanize support and to sensitize on breastfeeding and nutrition issues in the community, the Department of Community Health Nursing and the Sub-center Madaga, Athrady jointly conducted an awareness programme on ‘Breastfeeding’ at Madaga Anganawadi Centre for 40 women and ASHA workers on August 7, 2018.

To create awareness regarding ‘Breastfeeding and its importance’, Department of Community Health Nursing and the Primary Health Centre Hirebettu jointly organized an awareness programme for 36 ASHA workers and the mothers at Hirebettu Anganwadi, on August 2 and 4, 2018.

The second activity was to strengthen the nurses on counselling the mothers at health facilities regarding breastfeeding and to emphasize how breastfeeding is linked with foundation as well as nourishment for life. A training programme on ‘Lactation counselling and Complementary feeding’ was conducted for 23 staff nurses of Kasturba Hospital, Manipal by the faculty members of Manipal College of Nursing Manipal from August 2 to 7, 2018.

Various sessions emphasizing breastfeeding and counselling the mothers were taken by the trained Infant Young Child Feeding counsellors for two hours each day for a motivated group of staff nurses who can act as lactation support counsellors in the health facility.

In yet another programme, an interactive health education session on “Breast feeding, positioning technique and its importance” to the mothers and caregivers of newborns admitted in NICU and postnatal wards of Kasturba Hospital Manipal was conducted also from August 2 to 7, 2018. Counselling on lactation was given to 15 postnatal mothers in OBG OPD, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal and Dr TMA Pai Hospital, Udupi on all the days.

To promote awareness among the public and launch a call for action to reach out to the policy makers, programme managers and media, a community awareness programme through a radio talk was delivered by 2nd Year MSc Nursing students from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Nursing, Manipal College of Nursing Manipal on the theme. The programme was broadcast on Radio FM 90.4 MHz.