For Breastfeeding To Succeed, Mothers Need Support

� "Mother Support: Going for the Gold!" is the motif the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action
selected for Breastfeeding Awareness Month, August 2008, to tie breastfeeding in with the
Summer Olympic Games. As every country sends its best athletes to compete, the importance
of offering each child a healthy start in life is emphasised. The countersign "gold" raises awareness of
the superiority of breastfeeding. The paper calls on health professionals, employers, families
and communities to provide a breastfeeding friendly surround that helps new mothers reach
their breastfeeding goals.


The Alabama Department of Public Health and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for
Women, Infants and Children (WIC) educate pregnant women and new mothers about the
health benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and child. Another goal of WIC is to increase
the prevalence of breastfeeding among new mothers.


"For optimal growth and development we call for greater support for mothers in achieving the
gold standard of babe feeding-breastfeeding only for sestet months and providing
allow complementary foods with continued breastfeeding," Michell Grainger, state
lactation coordinator with the WIC Program, said.


The American Academy of Pediatrics supports breastfeeding as "unambiguously superiorr for infant
feeding" and recommends that breastfeeding start as soon afterwards birth as possible.


Breastfeeding's benefits to the infant are as follows:


- Increases unsusceptibility to infectious diseases

- Enhances cognitive development

- Reduces risk of obesity, diabetes and asthma

- Reduces risk of death in infants over 1 month of long time


The benefits of breastfeeding to mothers include the following:


- Reduced risk of premenopausal breast crab and ovarian cancer

- Reduced risk of spinal and hip fractures in postmenopausal women

- Help in reversive to pre-pregnancy weight more readily

- Fewer sick visits to the doctor and reduced health care costs


WIC provides prenatal guidance on the benefits of breastfeeding, furnishes breastfeeding
supplies and pumps, and allows breastfeeding mothers to cover to receive benefits for up to
one year after the baby's birth if the mother continues to lactate.


In plus, WIC provides a equal counseling program in several Alabama counties. Present or
former WIC participants world Health Organization have breastfed their babies serve as peer counselors. After
extensive grooming, these counselors provide support to meaning and breastfeeding mothers.


The Healthy People 2010 objectives of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ar
as follows:


- To have at least 75 percent of mothers nurse their infants in the early postnatal period

- To have 50 percent continue breastfeeding through 6 months of historic period

- For 25 percent to continue breastfeeding at 1 year of age.

Alabama Department of Public Health


More info

• Baby’s stroke treatment complaint
• Hitting head on diving board a common injury for kids
• Silver Lining? Midlife HRT May Cut Dementia
• The sea creature giving Britain’s olympic sailing squad a boost
• Does exercise really ease anxiety?

Franz Ferdinand agonise over new album

Franz Ferdinand have delayed the outlet of their new album because they cannot make up one's mind on the disc's direction.

Drummer Paul Thomson revealed that the band have already recorded 15 tracks for their third studio LP, but are struggling to make their final choices for the record.

"We