THE Zimbabwe Civil Society Organizations Scaling Up Nutrition (ZICSOSUNA) has handed over equipment for the breastfeeding room being set up inside the Parliament of Zimbabwe building, in a move that is set to bring convenience to lactating Members of Parliament and other parliament female employees.
By Patricia Mashiri
The donated stuff includes couch set, refrigerator, carpet and a table. In her acceptance speech, Mabel Chinomona, the President of Senate and Patron of the Women’s Caucus said the donation from ZICOSUNA came at the right time as there has been increasing conversations around neo-natal and maternal health care around the world.
It is worth noting that this kind gesture could not have come at a more opportune time than this one when there has been increasing and critical conversations around neo-natal and maternal health care across the world. I am sure you are all aware that there have been increasing calls to reduce the use of synthetic and artificial formulas as a substitute for breastfeeding.
“Historically, the promotion of breastfeeding dates back to 1981 when the WHO Code was adopted by the World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization. The thrust of this critical document in the neo-natal document in the neo-natal public health strategy was to discourage and regulate the use and promotion of artificial formulas and cereals while promoting exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of the baby’s life. It is important to realize that breastfeeding is a child’s first inoculation against death, disease and poverty, but their most enduring investment in physical cognitive and social capacity,” said Honorable Chinomona.
She added that breastfeeding was also beneficial to the mothers and has been known to reduce the risk of breast and ovarian cancers as well as heart disease.
“For Zimbabwe, breastfeeding is pivotal in the drive towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals SDG) and the national vision 2030. Breastfeeding improves nutrition (SGD3) , prevents child mortality and reduces risks of communicable diseases SDG3, and supports cognitive development and education (SGD4). But more importantly, through the ZCOSUNA initiative to establish Family Friendly Rooms, Zimbabwe has received the proverbial shot in the army to reinforce its unwavering commitment to achieving commitment to achieve gender equality and empowering all women and girls (SDG5).”
She added that there was need to demystify breastfeeding in public by pulling down the veil of ignorance, stigma and discrimination through strategic community engagement activities.
Dr Tonderayi Matsungo, the Acting Chairperson of ZCOSUNA, said their donation came after the realization that there has been a challenge whereby most working environments do not provide conducive environments to breastfeed, express milk and facilities to store their milk.
“Zimbabwe is a breastfeeding nation and Ministry of Health and Child Care recommends that women must practice exclusive breastfeeding -that is giving breast milk only to infants for the first 6 months of life and continue to breastfeed their babies until they are at least 24 months. This has been a challenge among many working women taking into consideration that they only have 98 days of maternity leave and most working environments do not provide privacy for women to express their milk and facilities to store it. Although women have 1 hour break per day to breastfeed their babies, some leave a bit far away from their workplaces and that time is spent traveling.
“Because of these challenges some women end up expressing and discarding breast milk in toilets which is not recommended. Others will end up opting to wean their babies early so that they can return to work. Such practices are denying young ones the right to the most important source of food which is breast milk, breast milk has the right quality and quantity of nutrients that babies need. In this pandemic we need to support breastfeeding more than before, breast milk has properties that protect infants and children from the virus,” Dr Matsungo said.
