Breastfeeding is not an individual act, but a right that requires support networks, public policies and real accompaniment. While in Latin America only 43% of babies receive exclusive breastfeeding for six months, Acade’s experience shows that with community presence and care that number can double.
Accompany breastfeeding is not just helping the baby take the tit. Is to open a listening space, respect, real presence. It is looking at that mother, at that time, with everything that happens to her. It is to understand that behind each beginning there are doubts, expectations, tiredness, decisions and also desire.
Unfortunately, many times that desire is truncated due to lack of support. In Latin America, only 43% of babies receive exclusive human breastfeeding during the first six months, according to data from the Pan American Health Organization. And that number has nothing to do with the individual will, but with the context: Who accompanies? What network does it hold? What tools are available?
Exclusive human breastfeeding saves lives. According to the World Health Organization, it guarantees optimal nutrition during the first months, protects against respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, and reduces the risk of infant mortality. It also contributes to the neurological and emotional development of the baby, and has long -term benefits for maternal health, such as the reduction of the risk of certain types of cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
In addition, it is a practice that generates links, security and contact. But for this to happen, it is not enough to say it. You have to build the conditions.
In health services where we work from Acade, that number changes. There, 80.6% of babies are breastfed exclusively during the first six months. That difference is not accidental. It is the result of years of presence in the territory, of puericultural training, link construction, promoting a respectful look on breastfeeding and parenting.
Because breastfeeding is not imposed. It is accompanied. And when there is accompaniment, there is more possibility of sustaining.
That is why we insist that breastfeeding is not an individual task. It is a right. And like every right, it needs conditions to be able to exercise: public policies, appropriate licenses, prepared hospitals, teams formed and, above all, a community that embraces.
What this difference shows – among 43% and 80% – is that when there is a puericulter, things change. Being present, looking with empathy, offering tools, is much more than a technical act: it is a commitment to health, with the link, with life.
Exclusive human breastfeeding does not depend only on a mother’s desire. It depends on everything that surrounds her. When there is accompaniment, there is breastfeeding. When there is a network, there is possibility. And when we commit ourselves as a society to be, to form, to take care of, then, breastfeeding ceases to be a privilege and becomes a right that everyone can exercise.
President of Acade (Argentine civil association)
Source: Ambito
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