ABU DHABI // Experts have called for more lactation consultants to help new mothers struggling to breastfeed, following legislation that would make nursing mandatory.
The Federal National Council recently adding a clause to the Child Rights law making breastfeeding a right for every child, and there is a severe lack of specialists in the UAE, said Dr Eeva-Liisa Langille, a consultant in general paediatrics at Abu Dhabi's Burjeel Hospital.
“Breastfeeding is utterly important and if there is a law that sort of demands mothers to breastfeed then there should also be a system that helps them do that,” she said.
Burjeel Hospital provides a lactation service, she said, and Corniche Hospital has several trained nurses and a lactation clinic. Many other hospitals, however, do not provide the service despite it being essential for some new mothers.
Breastfeeding can be simple and straightforward for some, but a struggle for others.
“Sometimes it’s a question that the mother’s physique is a little bit unfavourable so the baby needs to learn how to latch on in a certain way,” she said. “Or you can have inverted nipples, which some people think is a big problem but it is not – actually you just need training for the baby.”
Without help, some mothers give up in frustration and turn to bottle feeding. But that decision is hard to reverse, Dr Langille said.
“If you start on bottle-feeding then that is completely different from breastfeeding so therefore the baby has to unlearn and relearn the latching.”
The law, passed in January, states that every child has the right to be breastfed and also stipulates that the Government should work to promote breastfeeding through publicity campaigns.
Dr Mona Al Bahar, an FNC member from Dubai, said this could not be done without lactation consultants, “especially for first-time mums”.
She added that insurance coverage of breast pumps would help new mothers in the UAE.
There are about 260 trained lactation experts in the UAE, 33 of whom are at Corniche Hospital, according to Gabriela Sha’at, a lactation consultant in the hospital.
“Women are more likely to stop breastfeeding in the first month when they experience problems, such as sore, cracked nipples, inadequate milk production and infant difficulties with breastfeeding,” she said.
“A lactation consultant can help women overcome these difficulties and thereby increase the duration of breastfeeding.”
She said such specialists improve health outcomes for mother and child.
“Breastfed children have at least a six-time greater chance of survival in the early months than non-breastfed children,” she said.
“Globally, breastfeeding drastically reduces deaths from acute respiratory infections and diarrhoea, two major child killers, as well as from other infectious diseases.”
Official advice by the World Health Organisation and Unicef suggests that mothers should breastfeed exclusively for the first six months, continuing for two years or longer.
Sian Khoury, a registered breastfeeding counsellor, said nursing was the biologically normal way to feed a child. Children who are not breastfed suffer higher rates of disease as infants and later in life, she said.
“Not breastfeeding also puts mothers at higher risk of diseases,” Ms Khoury said. “It has additional economic, psychological and ecological implications for mother, child, family and society. There is no doubt that breastfeeding matters.”
Ms Khoury, of Breastfeeding Q&A, an online group set up for mother-to-mother support, said it was important to train health-care practitioners to enable them to identify and solve breastfeeding problems and to refer mums and babies in special situations to qualified specialists.
Karine Poghosyan, a community health educator at Al Noor Hospital, agreed that more lactation consultants were needed.
“At the moment we feel that there is room for further expansion and development in this very important area of maternal and child health,” she said.
“From my experience, I can confidently say that the majority of mothers show a great interest and willingness to breastfeed their newborn babies. A breastfeeding mother, especially a first-timer, will need the guidance of healthcare specialists and the full support of her family.
“Once mothers are armed with the right set of knowledge, they will easily sail through the process.”
Mothers who breastfeed have a lower risk of breast and ovarian cancer, osteoporosis and postpartum haemorrhage, she said, while also helping women shed baby weight more quickly.
jbell@thenational.ae
* with additional reporting by Ola Salem
