Holguin to Mark World Breastfeeding Week
- Written by Lourdes Pichs Rodríguez
- Published in Health
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The mothers enter the Neonatal ward to breastfeed their children several times a day during their admission to the health center. Photos: Carlos RafaelThe province of Holguin will mark the World Breastfeeding Week from August 1 to 7, with activities aimed at achieving greater sensitivity among mothers and relatives on the importance of breastfeeding starting within one hour after birth until a baby is 6 months old.
Actions also aims to promote the work and objectives of the Human Milk Bank (BLH) based in the provincial hospital Vladimir Ilich Lenin, where each year takes place the largest number of births in the eastern Cuban province, with an average of 20 births per day.
Dr. Tania Wilson, provincial coordinator of the program, explained that the activities will begin with a massive donation of human milk among women in labor at the health center; as well as meetings among milk brothers, children whose mothers have cooperated with the BLH.
The also Head of the Neonatology Service of the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Hospital highlighted that more than 99 percent of the children born in the center leave with exclusive breastfeeding. "Today it is a priority for the Holguin health system to ensure that this food is prolonged exclusively during the first six months of life of infants and keep it with other meals until two years of age, for being the best food to offer a baby and the benefits it brings to women's health protecting them against ovarian and breast cancer and other diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.”
