Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding

Every facility providing maternity services and care for newborn infants should:

1. Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.
2. Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.
3. Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
4. Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within half an hour of birth.
5. Show mothers how to breastfeed, and how to maintain lactation even if they should be separated from
their infants.
6. Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breast milk, unless medically indicated.
7. Practice rooming-in - that is, allow mothers and infants to remain together - 24 hours a day.
8. Encourage breastfeeding on demand.
9. Give no artificial teats or pacifiers (also called dummies or soothers) to breastfeeding infants.
10. Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from
the hospital or clinic.

Health Beliefs and Practices

Breastfeeding
Do not breastfeed when you’re tired. It affects the quality of the milk.

Breech childbirth brings luck.

A breech baby (or suhi in Filipino, which means the baby came out from the womb feet first) will bring luck to
the family. And, apparently, when the baby grows up he will have the ability to remove fish spines (tinik in
Filipino) stuck in another person’s throat by simply touching and massaging that person’s neck.

Placenta should be wrapped and buried.

They say that if you bury the placenta near the house, the child will grow up close to the family. Wrapping the
placenta in newspaper will make the baby smarter, too.

Keep baby's hair from his first hair cut.

It's common practice for hair to be kept inside books like encyclopedias and dictionaries hoping that it will
make children smarter, and 7 out of the 10 parents surveyed still believe in this tradition. Today, kiddie salons
offer a certificate to commemorate a child's first hair cut (which includes a few streaks of hair, plus his before
and after photos) so the belief takes a backseat for many.

Cut a baby’s eyelashes during his first month to make them long and beautiful.
Sadly, five out of 10 parents we asked did this. Thin and short lashes is not a sign of poor health or poor child
care. Lashes like our hair fall off and regrow in time. It has its purpose so cutting them might do more harm
than good.

Birthmark
It is said that when a baby has a birthmark anywhere on his/ her body, it is lucky for the parents and the child.
There are also different beliefs on the location of the birthmark. When you have one on your buttocks, they say
it bring bad luck on small and big instances in the child’s life.

Nose
Always pull the babies nose to make it more defined and have a better-looking shape. Some say that we can
still modify the child’s nose while the cartilage is soft.
GEL MARIE LOBATON BSN 2-D
Usog
It is said that this is a discomfort to the child brought by a person having “usog” or hex- some even call it an evil
wind/ eye. It happens when the person meets the child then becomes fond of him/her. The child will
usually have fever and feel weak. The child may suffer extreme discomfort that he/she will cry a lot.

Baby Clothes
It is considered unlucky to show a baby’s clothes before he/ she is born.

Bath Time and Nails

It is considered unlucky to bathe and cut baby’s nails at night. Some even believe that cutting the nails should
only be on certain days of the week. It is said to be unlucky to cut the baby’s nails on a Friday. The first cut
nails of the baby should be wrapped in a white cloth or paper and kept well so baby will be a good boy or girl
when he/she grows up.

Current Trends in Maternal and Child Health

Breastfeeding taboo: Incorrect medication should not be a barrier

Many women, for whom breastfeeding is going well, are told they cannot breastfeed while taking medication. In
some cases, this is perfectly justified – and women who are breastfeeding should always seek professional
advice before taking any medication. But research has shown that many medications are safe to take while
breastfeeding. Despite this, some mothers are told that they must stop breastfeeding their baby when
prescribed a new treatment, even when that treatment actually poses no risk to either them or their baby.

Bottle-fed babies are 25% more likely to become obese compared to those breast-fed

Babies who are bottle fed are substantially more likely to end up obese than those who are breast-fed,
research by the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed.
A study of almost 30,000 children found that breastfeeding had a “protective” effect which reduced the chance
of having weight-related problems in the future.

Babies who are exclusively bottle-fed are 25 per cent more likely to be obese when they grow up, while in
some countries the risk increases by up to 90 per cent.

The research, which included data from 16 European countries, found that babies who are given a mixture of
breastfeeding and formula milk are 12 per cent more likely to end up obese than if they only had breast milk.

According to experts involved in the study, the reason formula milk may cause babies to gain more weight is
because it is developed from cows' milk which has higher levels of protein and may trigger the growth of fat
cells. The WHO has since called for more support to help mothers breast feed and less promotion of formula
milk.

Dr Joao Breda, head of the WHO European office for prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases,
said governments must do more to promote breastfeeding.

“Breastfeeding has a really strong protective effect. The evidence is there. The benefit is outstanding so we
should be telling people,” Breda said.
GEL MARIE LOBATON BSN 2-D
Sue Ashmore, director of the Unicef UK’s Baby Friendly Initiative agreed, adding that breastfeeding is “the first
defense against the epidemic of obesity”.

“In the UK we have some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world, with eight out of ten women stopping
breastfeeding before they want to,” Ashmore said.

Despite the findings, only around one per cent of mothers in Britain breastfeed their child for at least six
months without using a bottle, the latest figures from Unicef show.
In 2018, a report by Public Health England (PHE) revealed that the number of women breastfeeding their
babies six to eight weeks after giving birth had declined.

Just 42.7 per cent of mothers breastfeed their babies when they are six weeks old, according to most recent
data for 2017-2018.

The rate has fallen from 43.1 per cent in 2015-2016 and 43.8 per cent in 2014-2015.

According to the NHS’s Start4Life campaign, the benefits of breastfeeding include protection from infection and
nutritional balance, as well as a lower chance of sudden infant death syndrome, childhood leukemia and
allergies.

It also claims that breastfed babies are less likely to develop diabetes or become overweight when they are
older and says mothers benefit by bonding with their child and having a lower risk of developing breast and
ovarian cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The WHO recommends that mothers breastfeed their baby for the first six months of life, after which they can
start eating solids, supplemented by breastfeeding.

It places no upper age limit on breastfeeding but encourages mothers to do so until their child is around two
years old.

Mothers! Breast milk, Saliva Can Boost Oral Health in Babies

The growth of some microbes are inhibited for up to 24 hours following breast milk and saliva mixing.

Besides being a source of nutrition, breast milk also plays an important role in shaping a healthy oral
microbiome in babies, suggests a study.

The study, led by Queensland University of Technology (QUT), showed that the growth of some microbes was
inhibited for up to 24 hours following breast milk and saliva mixing.

This slowing down was irrespective of whether the microorganism was considered to be "pathogenic" (harmful)
or "commensal" (normally found) in an infant's mouth.

It could be because the interaction of neonatal saliva and breast milk releases antibacterial compounds,
including hydrogen peroxide, the researchers said.

GEL MARIE LOBATON BSN 2-D

"Breast milk is high in an enzyme called xanthine oxidase which acts on two substrates, found in babies'
saliva," said Emma Sweeney, from QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation.
"The release of hydrogen peroxide from this interaction also activates the 'lactoperoxidase system' which
produces additional compounds that also have antibacterial activity, and these compounds are capable of
regulating the growth of microorganisms," she added, in the paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Sweeney noted that the composition of newborns' mouth microbiota was an important factor in health and well-
being.

"Changes to these bacterial communities in newborns have important implications for infection or disease early
in life," she said.

"While adult oral microbiota are stable, our studies have shown that the microbiota in the mouths of newborns
is much more dynamic and seems to be altered by the mode of feeding within the first few months of life."
However, this also has significant implications for premature or sick babies who are fed via a tube.

"In these cases, the mixing of breast milk and babies' saliva does not occur and so they do not receive the
benefits of the antibacterial compounds released during breastfeeding.

"Other researchers have shown that hydrogen peroxide can remain active at pH levels similar to that of a
baby's stomach, so we think that this antimicrobial activity seen in the mouth may also continue within the
baby's stomach and intestines," Sweeney said.

Breastfeeding Contributes to Good Gut Bacteria Formation in Babies

The study found that the bacterium, bifidobacterium, was abundant in breast milk that declined rapidly after
breastfeeding stopped.

Breastfeeding plays an important role in providing good gut bacteria to babies until the age of two-and-a-half
with little change after this point, says a new research.

The study found that the bacterium, bifidobacterium, was abundant in breast milk that declined rapidly after
breastfeeding stopped.

Bifidobacterium is one of the main bacteria used in probiotics, owing to its potential therapeutic properties.
"Targeting the nutrients in breast milk that encourage the growth of healthy bacteria in the infant gut, or
providing probiotic containing Bifidobacterium, represent important avenues for future research aimed at
restoring the beneficial properties of being breastfed when breast milk is not available, " said Christopher
Stewart, researcher from the Newcastle University in the UK.

In addition, once infants were accustomed, there was a rapid turnover in the bacterial community and a loss of
most of the Bifidobacterium, replaced by bacteria within the firmicutes phyla, a kind of bacteria, findings
revealed.

"Because a diet without breast milk delivers different nutrients to the gut, this rapid turnover in the bacterial
community is likely to be in response to the new food sources promoting the growth of a different community,"
said Stewart.
GEL MARIE LOBATON BSN 2-D
For the study, published in the journal Nature, the team analysed 12,500 stool samples from 903 children,
aged three to 46 months old.
Th findings revealed that microbiome composition and diversity changed over time in three distinct phases: the
developmental phase (three to 14 months), transitional phase (15-30 months) and stable phase (31 months
onwards).

In addition, vaginal birth was associated with a temporary increase in bacteroides bacteria.
Also, siblings, exposure to pets, and geographical location were the factors in the differences between
microbiome profiles.

"We know that the first few years of life are important for microbiome establishment. You are born with very
few microbes, and microbial communities assemble on and in your body through those first years of your life,"
said Joseph Petrosino, Director at the Baylor College of Medicine in the US.

References:

https://www.unicef.org/newsline/tenstps.html

https://www.news18.com/news/lifestyle/breastfeeding-contributes-to-good-gut-bacteria-formation-in-babies-
1923463.html
https://www.news18.com/news/lifestyle/mothers-breast-milk-saliva-can-boost-oral-health-in-babies-
1935537.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/breastfeeding-bottle-bottle-fed-formula-milk-obesity-study-who-
a8892486.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/breastfeeding-taboo-medication-barrier-breastmilk-parenthood-
babies-a8884091.html

https://classroom.synonym.com/inuit-pregnancy-conception-beliefs-11481.html

https://www.smartparenting.com.ph/parenting/baby/filipino-pamahiins-myth-or-fact-a1663-20170924-lfrm

https://tinatanjuatco.com/2016/07/07/filipino-baby-beliefs/

GEL MARIE LOBATON BSN 2-D