Breastfeeding - The Best Gift for Children
29-year-old Hongmei stood on the stage holding her baby in her arms, looking attentively while she talked. The topic of her talk was “confusion around adding trace elements for children”. She burst into smile when experts in the audience responded positively.
It was only a month earlier that Hongmei was planning to start weaning her 3-month-old baby and to leave the baby to her parents while she went to work.
It was also around then the Fourth Yangxian Children’s Forum, funded by World Vision and supported by the County Bureau of Health and Family Planning, was under preparation to open in late March. When Yangxian TV Station and County Bureau of Health and Family Planning went into the villages to research and shoot videos on children’s nutrition in preparation for the forum, Hongmei, one of the few women left in the village, was encouraged to participate in an interview and a discussion on “Exclusive breastfeeding, Children’s Nutrition and Health”.
“I was questioning my own decision to go out to work while participating in the discussion. But almost every woman in my village leaves their baby at home,” Hongmei said hesitantly.
World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months to ensure the healthy growth and development for infants.
In March, the Children’s Forum convened officers from the provincial government as well as experts from Hong Kong and Beijing. Hongmei participated in the forum, mixing and speaking to experts.
After the conference, Hongmei communicated relentlessly to her parents and husband, who is a migrant worker. Finally, they agreed for her to stay at home to care for the child. Meanwhile, her village was chosen as Yangxian’s pilot site for the “Exclusive Breastfeeding for the First Six Months” program. Hongmei was the first to sign up to become a member of the “Exclusive Breastfeeding Promotion and Cooperation Group”. In order to promote the benefits of breastfeeding among villagers, the group organized two behavioral change communication activities in the village using performance, short plays and videos.
“When my neighbor delivered her child, I immediately went to her to share the benefits of breastfeeding. She also chose to breastfeed her baby. The baby has been very healthy,” Hongmei said. “Through World Vision’s activities, mindsets of the elderly are starting to change too. They no longer interfere with mothers’ decision to leave or stay. They even encourage mothers to stay at home to breastfeed since breastfeeding is both convenient and economical. It is our best gift for children.”
World Vision and Yangxian County Bureau of Health and Family Planning have agreed to hold Children’s Forums in the coming years around the theme of children’s nutrition. Meanwhile, they will organize activities in other villages to promote exclusive breastfeeding and appropriate complementary feeding to ensure more children are nurtured and enjoy healthy growth.
(Written by Li Yun)