Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaper Phnom Penh Post - WBW2022 promotes breastfeeding, raises awareness of nutrition issues

WBW2022 promotes breastfeeding, raises awareness of nutrition issues

Content image - Phnom Penh Post
Nurses, mothers and their infants at a breastfeeding ward inaugurated by the health ministry in March. NATIONAL MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH CENTRE

WBW2022 promotes breastfeeding, raises awareness of nutrition issues

Civil society organisations (CSOs) working on nutrition issues co-organised World Breastfeeding Week 2022 (WBW2022) events in Cambodia to encourage breastfeeding through education, while also calling for more support to promote the practice in the country.

Included among the seven slogans created by the CSOs during the campaign for WBW2022 are “Every mother has a right to breastfeed anytime and anywhere” and “Men support and encourage women to breastfeed”.

World Breastfeeding Week is observed annually in more than 120 countries, usually in the first week of August, according to Chum Senveasna, head of the ARCH and Workplace Nutrition, Infant and Young Child Feeding Support Project at the NGO Helen Keller International Cambodia.

Senveasna told The Post on August 8 that WBW2022 was held to raise awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding, which improves the health of children and has been proven to be much better for children than infant formulas.

He said the event has helped parents and especially mothers to understand clearly that the infant formula being promoted to them is not as beneficial as natural breast-milk.

“Certain companies have now dared advertise that infant formula is more beneficial than breast-milk. This advertising is completely wrong and misleads many parents to misunderstand the situation and this makes many infants suffer,” he said.

Senveasna expected that the campaign would reach members of the public so that they can understand about the benefits of breastfeeding and promote it instead of infant formula which simply cannot be compared to breast-milk.

Content image - Phnom Penh Post
A woman breastfeeds her infant at a ward in National Maternal and Child Health Centre in March. NMCHC

Grana Pu Selvie, technical lead for the Integrated Nutrition Programme at World Vision Cambodia, said breast-milk is the ideal food for infants. Citing the World Health Organisation (WHO), she said it is safe, clean and contains antibodies which help protect against many common childhood illnesses.

She added that breast-milk provides all of the energy and nutrients that an infant needs for the first months of their life, and it continues to provide up to half or more of a child’s nutritional needs during the second half of their first year and up to one-third during the second year of the infant’s life.

“Breastfed children perform better on intelligence tests, are less likely to be overweight or obese and less prone to diabetes later in life. Women who breastfeed also have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Considering the benefits both for the mother and child, it is important to support mothers in breastfeeding,” she told The Post.

The rate of exclusive breastfeeding among children from zero to six months has declined from 65 per cent in 2014 to 51 per cent in 2021, according to the 2021–22 Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey released by the Ministry of Health in June.

“Exclusive breastfeeding among children aged 0-5 months increased from 11 per cent in 2000 to a peak of 74 per cent in 2010 and declined steadily from 65 per cent in 2014 to 51 per cent in 2021-22,” the survey said.

The government is officially committed to increasing the rate of exclusive breastfeeding for infants and children from 0-6 months up to 85 per cent by 2030, according to the survey report.

MOST VIEWED

  • Wing Bank opens new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004

    Wing Bank celebrates first anniversary as commercial bank with launch of brand-new branch. One year since officially launching with a commercial banking licence, Wing Bank on March 14 launched a new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004. The launch was presided over by

  • Girl from Stung Meanchey dump now college grad living in Australia

    After finishing her foundational studies at Trinity College and earning a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne in 2022, Ron Sophy, a girl who once lived at the Stung Meanchey garbage dump and scavenged for things to sell, is now working at a private

  • Ministry using ChatGPT AI to ‘ease workload’; Khmer version planned

    The Digital Government Committee is planning to make a Khmer language version of popular artificial intelligence (AI) technology ChatGPT available to the public in the near future, following extensive testing. On March 9, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications revealed that it has been using the

  • Wat Phnom hornbills attract tourists, locals

    Thanks to the arrival of a friendly flock of great hornbills, Hour Rithy, a former aviculturist – or raiser of birds – in Kratie province turned Phnom Penh tuk tuk driver, has seen a partial return to his former profession. He has become something of a guide

  • PM urges end to ‘baseless’ international Ream base accusations

    Prime Minister Hun Sen urges an end to “baseless” foreign accusations surrounding the development of the Kingdom’s Ream Naval Base, as the US has consistently suggested that the base is being expanded to accommodate a Chinese military presence. Hun Sen renewed his calls while

  • Almost 9K tourists see equinox sunrise at Angkor Wat

    Nearly 9,000 visitors – including 2,226 international tourists – gathered at Angkor Wat on March 21 to view the spring equinox sunrise, according to a senior official of the Siem Reap provinical tourism department. Ngov Seng Kak, director of the department, said a total of 8,726 people visited Angkor Wat to