LERATO LELIA
More mothers in South Africa need to breastfeed their infants. This is according to the South African Breastmilk Reserve (SABR) which has partnered with the Free State Department of Health to expand human-milk-banking to a further four provincial hospitals leading to a total of six.
Executive director at SABR, Stasha Jordan, says this was a necessary move in order to encourage mothers to breastfeed their babies as well as to donate their breast milk. “We have a dangerously low breastfeeding rate in South Africa at just below eight percent. The shortage in breast milk is related to a number of issues that pertain to creating an enabling environment for breastfeeding. As well as recognising the role that breastfeeding plays in infant survival and in the health of children,” explained Jordan.
The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) of Africa credits breastfeeding as the single biggest influence on decreasing infant mortality and malnutrition, especially in the least developed countries of Africa. Based on this core belief, SABR is urging mothers to breastfeed their own babies for at least the first six months of their lives, to ensure optimum growth and development.
“We believe that breastfeeding, access to mothers-own-milk, donated breast milk and education are the keys to unlocking infant survival”, added Jordan.
In the previous financial year, the SABR had 889 donors and supplied breast milk to 1295 infants, which contributed to saving an average of 5,000 premature infants from infection and mortality associated with lack of breastfeeding, since its inception in 2003.
