UNICEF: Promoting breastfeeding in cyclone-hit Myanmar

During World Breastfeeding Week, 1-7 August 2008, UNICEF and other advocacy groups are promoting exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, which experts believe could save 1.3 million infant lives every year.

SOUTHERN BOGALAY, Myanmar, 7 August 2008 -- Ma Khin Mar San lives in Kyonegyi Konethechaung, one of the rural islands in Southern Bogalay in the Irrawaddy Delta. Nearly 800 people in her village were killed by the storm surge that followed Cyclone Nargis in May. Ma Khin Mar San's youngest step child was among the casualties.

She was due to give birth when the cyclone struck but was able to escape harm by climbing a coconut tree. She and her surviving step child were without help and proper shelter for four days before food rations arrived. After her baby was born, village elders advised her not to breastfeed, saying that she was too weak from the storm. They told her to feed her baby formula.

It was only after a UNICEF Health and Nutrition Officer intervened that the mother and child were properly assessed and encouraged to exclusively breastfeed her baby. Ma Khin Mar San was transferred to a local hospital where her child was already showing signs of malnutrition.

To read the full story, visit: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/myanmar_45109.html

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