MoPH, partners celebrate World Breastfeeding Week

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in conjunction with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), and Sidra Medicine, is highlighting World Breastfeeding Week marked annually from August 1 to 7 under the theme: “Protect Breastfeeding: A Shared Responsibility”

It aims to draw attention to the importance of supporting women to successfully breastfeed their babies, especially within the first few hours of giving birth and exclusively throughout babies’ first six months.On this occasion, MoPH and its partners are launching an awareness campaign to promote breastfeeding. Awareness lectures will be held in Arabic and English at the mother and child forum to discuss the importance of breastfeeding for mother and child, common challenges related to breastfeeding, as well as ways to access health services related to breastfeeding. Moreover, face-to-face virtual breastfeeding educational sessions will be run by the Women’s Wellness and Research Center, HMC and community awareness will be intensified using media and social media to deliver messages that support breastfeeding.Dr Sadriya al-Kohji, assistant medical director for Children and Adolescent Services at PHCC and national lead for Healthy Children and Adolescents Strategies, stated that the health sector in Qatar continues its efforts to achieve the national goal of increasing exclusive breastfeeding throughout the first six months of the infant's life, as part of the National Health Strategy 2018-2022, as well as to advocate breastfeeding until the age of two years to provide a healthier life for children. She added that such efforts are also in line with the global strategy for infant and young child feeding by protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding.Qatar National Health Strategy 2018-2022 lead for Healthy Women Leading to Healthy Pregnancies, Dr Najat Ali Mohsen Khenyab said, “One of our plans under the ‘Healthy Women Leading to Healthy Pregnancies’ is to help, inform and empower women to lead healthier lives by providing them with high quality maternal care, enabling them to take care of themselves and their children. One of the objectives of achieving this is by supporting breastfeeding at the national level.”Dr Salah Abdulla Alyafei acting manager, Health Promotion and Non-Communicable Diseases and Head of Health Education Programmes, MoPH, said, “The Ministry is working in cooperation with its partners in the health sector to promote breastfeeding awareness for both the child and the mother through launching awareness campaigns and correcting misconceptions about it, in addition to launching several initiatives aimed at increasing the level of breastfeeding and addressing the challenges faced by breastfeeding mothers.”Fetna al-Naemi, Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative ( BFHI) Programme and WBW national coordinator and nutrition advisor at MoPH, has said: “Through BFHI, we are keen to assist mothers in applying optimal practices of exclusive breastfeeding for a period of six months and continuing until the age of two years.”She noted that the MoPH is organising four awareness lectures on the importance of breastfeeding and the challenges related to it to raise community awareness of the importance of breastfeeding and complementary feeding for children, as part of the mother and child health forum held this month. More awareness-raising lectures on complementary feeding for six-month old babies will also be organised in September.She stressed that breastfed children perform better on intelligence tests and 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, added al-Naemi.