UNAIR NEWS – Exclusive breastfeeding in Indonesia has not reached the national target set by the government, which is 80% of the total newborn babies in Indonesia. Even in Surabaya as one of the major cities in Indonesia, exclusive breastfeeding rate is only around 65%.
Babies who are not exclusively breastfed are more likely to be at risk of infection or disease so they can affect the growth and development of the baby. The impact of not giving exclusive breastfeeding to infants including digestive disorders, growth disorders, increased risk of morbidity in infants and nutritional disorders, aggravating risk of Acute Respiratory Infection and diarrhea.
The government has made various efforts to support exclusive breastfeeding. Efforts to increase public knowledge and attitudes about exclusive breastfeeding are carried out by promoting exclusive breastfeeding through counseling, posters, and national TV media. For that reason, Faculty of Nursing (FKp) lecturer, Retnayu Pradanie, S.Kep., Ns., M.Kep with her team studied about the fail attempts on implementing exclusive breastfeeding. One of them is low maternal confidence. There are still many mothers who are not sure that the amount of milk produced can meet the needs of the baby.
However, mothers have also tried various ways to increase milk production, from consuming katuk leaves, traditional herbal medicine, breastfeeding medicine to massage therapy.
Retnayu Pradanie, S.Kep., Ns., M.Kep revealed there are five factors related to maternal behavior in increasing milk production, such as the knowledge and attitudes of mothers about exclusive breastfeeding.”It is appropriate for mothers to know and understand the benefits of breast milk compared to formula milk and other additional food for babies,” she said.
Second, the myths developing in the community related to breastfeeding so mothers feel unsure to breastfeed their baby. In this regard, the mothers are expected not to easily believe the myths before consulting it with doctors or looking for conducted researches first.
“There are still many myths developing in the community related to breastfeeding, such as breastfeeding damaging the beauty of the breasts, the baby will remain hungry if not fed with porridge, breastfeeding will make the child attached to his mother so they will not be independent,” she stated.
Third, health care facilities, accessible health services that provide comprehensive services with great supporting facilities and infrastructure that support mothers to successful exclusive breastfeeding. “Even now there have been many lactation classes that support free consultations for mothers who want to breastfeed their babies exclusively,” she said.
Fourth, breastfeeding support provided by the family, such as information, emotional, financial and instrumental support. One form of real support that can be provided by the family includes helping to care for the baby, providing nutritious food for the mother, giving time for the mother to rest. Fifth, it needs great efforts together from all elements, breastfeeding mothers, families, health workers, and the surrounding community.
Author: Khefti Al Mawalia
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
References:
https://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:ijphrd&volume=10&issue=8&article=512
Pradanie Retnayu, Nastiti Aria Aulia, Jihan Thaliah. 2019. Analysis of Factors Related to The Mother’s Behavior to Increase Breastmilk Production. Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, Volume : 10, Issue : 8
