The Food and Nutrition Authority celebrated the commencement of World Breastfeeding Week, held under the theme “Empowering Breastfeeding… Making a Difference for Working Parents.”
This event runs until Nov 9 and highlights the impressive level of awareness among Kuwaiti mothers, with 93 percent recognizing the significance of breastfeeding, reports Al-Rai daily.
Dr. Mona Al-Sumaie, the Coordinator of the Program to Promote Nutrition for Mothers, Infants, and Young Children, as well as the Project to Combat Child Obesity at the Food and Nutrition Authority, explained that the focus of this celebration revolves around the intersection of breastfeeding and employment.
She elaborated, “The program’s objectives encompass showcasing the positive effects of paid maternity leave, supporting breastfeeding-friendly workplaces, and implementing local laws, regulations, and administrative decisions related to the Baby-Friendly Hospitals Initiative.”
Al-Sumaie further noted, “The program also aims to emphasize the impact of ministerial decisions regarding the protection of breastfeeding and the implementation of the Kuwaiti Code regulating the marketing of breast-milk substitutes.”
She underscored that the program’s mission is to promote, facilitate, and safeguard breastfeeding by enabling mothers and their families to initiate breastfeeding immediately after childbirth and continue exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of the newborn’s life.
Furthermore, Al-Sumaie pointed out that the results from the nutritional surveillance program in Kuwait for the year 2021 indicate an increasing demand for breastfeeding among Kuwaiti mothers. The breastfeeding rate surged to 93 percent, with 64 percent of infants experiencing early initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour after birth.
Additionally, exclusive breastfeeding with mother’s milk in the first six months of a newborn’s life reached 13 percent among Kuwaiti women, representing a 3 percent increase compared to the previous year, 2020.
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