Sustainable development: banner of the 2016 World Breastfeeding Week

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The lactation is one of the keys in the upbringing of newborns since breast milk contains all the nutrients that baby needs for healthy growth. Even the World Health Organization recommends giving exclusively breast milk in the first six months of the child. To remember the importance of this aspect in the smallest each year is organized on August 1 and 7 World Breastfeeding Week.

This year the International Breastfeeding Week will be marked by the motto "Breastfeeding: a key to sustainable development", a slogan that seeks to promote this way of feeding in the newly born and to establish it as a key component in the healthy development of the baby's brain, which results in long-term educational advantages, such as a higher IQ and better school performance.


Early withdrawal from breastfeeding

However, more than half of Spanish women give up exclusive breastfeeding before the first 6 months. The Dr. Jorge Manresa, pediatrician and professor of the ECHR, indicated as causes of this premature resignation the difficulty to make breastfeeding and work compatible and the "appearance of physical disorders associated with breastfeeding that cause early weaning".

Among the most common physical disorders that result from breastfeeding are cracks, fissures and inflammation in the nipples, causing the breast to be baby very painful

Benefits of breastfeeding

The World Breastfeeding Week aims to raise awareness about the many benefits of breastfeeding the baby. These are some of them:


1. Immunological benefits. Breast milk contains antibodies, therefore, babies who take it are less likely to get sick and when they do, their recovery is faster.

2. Required caloric intake. A study conducted in 2005, published in the journal Pediatrics, concluded that breast milk does not lose properties over time, on the contrary, its composition varies depending on the growth and needs of the baby.

3. Prevents cancer. It has also been shown that there is a lower incidence of some types of cancer, such as childhood leukemia, autoimmune and metabolic diseases.

4. Develop intelligence. As the motto of the International Breastfeeding Week 2016 says, breastfeeding is related to a greater intellectual development that is usually associated with a higher level of education and income in adult life.


5. Emotional development. Another benefit for the child is related to a better emotional and psychosocial development, which will allow the baby to relate adequately in his adult life. In this sense, these children present in the future greater ease in executive functions, planning, social and emotional intelligence and with language and increase their interest in social relationships.

Breastfeeding and work

Breastfeeding has multiple benefits as we have just seen. Therefore, another of the objectives of the World Breastfeeding Week is to raise awareness about the need to combine work and breastfeeding:

1. Join those of all sectors to make it easier for women to work and breastfeed everywhere.

2. Develop actions by employers that benefit families, babies and mothers and that actively support working mothers to continue breastfeeding.

3. Report continuously on the latest advances on guardianship and protection of Maternity Rights that occur throughout the world to raise awareness of the need to strengthen national regulations.

4. Share, facilitate and strengthen those practices to help women working in the informal sectors can breastfeed their children.

5. Generate a commitment in specific groups and work with them.

Damián Montero

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