The Community of Madrid has joined UNICEF to promote breastfeeding in the region. An agreement has been signed between both entities to create a Breastfeeding Committee in the region.
Coordination work is planned between UNICEF and CAM health agencies to ensure that both professionals receive specific training in breastfeeding and that mothers are encouraged to receive support and information for breastfeeding.
The campaign will be directed at pregnant mothers, so that they know the benefits of breastfeeding for them and their babies and have the resources to achieve breastfeeding if they wish to do so.
UNICEF believes that achieving the best health conditions for children is a priority objective that includes breastfeeding being the exclusive feeding of babies up to six months and continuing at least up to two years, as recommended by the World Organization for health.
Achieving this will mean a qualitative and quantitative improvement in the general health of Madrid's children, since, as is known, artificial lactation leads to higher rates of numerous diseases and, conversely, breastfeeding protects against them.
That mothers can breastfeed is a priority issue. This requires that health professionals be informed and truly support breastfeeding, and this can only be achieved with better training. No pediatrician should lightly recommend introducing bottles or complementary feeding, much less transmit to the mothers the convenience of premature weaning before two years, because until then, at least, no milk is better for children than their children's mothers
The signing of this agreement must involve a serious commitment on the part of the Ministry of Health in people's health through disease prevention. The role of Hospitals and health centers is essential in promoting breastfeeding, and that is why this commitment is very valuable. Now we have to wait and see if it really works.
Mothers who, medically, cannot breastfeed and achieve good production, with information and support, is very small. Most of the desired lactations that do not go ahead could have done so if the mothers received help. The news of the agreement of the Community of Madrid and UNICEF to promote breastfeeding is, for this reason, excellent. I hope you set the example.
