The importance and positive effects of breastfeeding and breastfeeding were emphasized by the specialists of the Clinical Center of the University of Debrecen at the event on Tuesday related to World Breastfeeding Day. The organizers and expectant mothers also took an attention-grabbing joint walk through the Big Forest.
First organized in 1992 by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), World Breastfeeding Week is held every year from August 1 to 7 in more than 120 countries. And World Breastfeeding Day always falls on August 1, remembering the Innocenti Declaration published on this day in 1990, in which experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced a global initiative to support and protect breastfeeding.
They called for a change of attitude so that instead of the bottle culture, the breastfeeding culture would be the norm worldwide. It is important that society, the home environment and the health care system support mothers to breastfeed exclusively for six months, and then to continue breastfeeding until the child is 2 years old or beyond, with appropriate complementary feeding. They also emphasized that maternity institutions should operate in accordance with the criteria of the baby-friendly hospital initiative, which can ensure a proper start in life.
We have been celebrating World Breastfeeding Day since 1992, and this was the year when the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic of the University of Debrecen Clinical Center was the first in Europe to receive the title of Baby-Friendly Hospital from the World Health Organization (WHO), which we earned with our breastfeeding support activities carried out together with neonatologists and pediatricians Who. We won this title again in 2009 and 2013
– said assistant professor Tamás Deli, head of the obstetrics department of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic of the UD Clinical Center.
Tamás Deli added: the clinic participates in the programs of the National Breastfeeding Support Committee and continuously trains its staff so that they can help the institution’s family- and baby-friendly care as effectively as possible with their professional activities. At the clinic, mothers are provided with skin-to-skin contact with their child in the first hour after giving birth, the so-called golden hour, and they are helped to respond to the newborn’s signal and successfully latch onto the first breast. In the maternity ward, mothers are supported in breastfeeding, and under the supervision of qualified baby nurses, they learn the different breastfeeding positions or the method of breast milking.
Breastfeeding isn’t always easy, but it’s worth it. Breastfeeding and the accompanying skin contact and physical contact help the development of the newborn’s healthy microflora, which is also very important from the point of view of adult health. Hugging and skin-to-skin contact help the development of a secure bond between mother and child, which is a condition for healthy psychological development. Breastfeeding on demand protects against obesity because, in contrast to bottle feeding, it does not hinder the newborn’s self-control, which is ensured by the changing composition of the milk and the hormones it contains, both during one feeding and from time to time. In addition, fresh breast milk protects against infections, Judit Kovács, a specialist at the Pediatric Clinic of the UD Clinical Center
– pointed out at the World Breastfeeding Day event in Debrecen.
During World Breastfeeding Week, on World Breastfeeding Day, the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic of the University of Debrecen Clinical Center and the Neonatology Department of the Pediatric Clinic organized their program together with the Életkezdet Szakmai Egyesület in the Nagyerdei Water Tower. In addition to encouraging and popularizing breastfeeding, the annually renewed theme of World Breastfeeding Week highlights various aspects of support.
With the event, we want to draw the public’s attention to the importance of breastfeeding, and we emphasize that social cooperation is needed so that health professionals, families and volunteer helpers can coordinately support mothers in breastfeeding
– said the organizer Éva Mihálka Péterné Lacovics, Pediatricians of the UD Clinical Center Graduated nurse and lactation consultant of the Clinic’s Neonatology Department.
After the greetings given at the Water Tower, the organizers and expectant mothers took a joint, attention-grabbing walk with their children to Oláh Gábor utcá, to Ferenc Medgyessy’s statue of a nursing mother.
(unideb.hu)
