Importance Of Breastfeeding Highlighted By Tawam Hospital During National Breast Feeing Week
1 day event at Tawam encourages mothers to breastfeed their newborn babies

November 21, 2008
Al Ain, UAE

Tawam Hospital in affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine, organized a breastfeeding awareness day on Wednesday 12th November from 10:00 a.m. – 14:00 with the theme ‘Promoting Mother to Mother Breastfeeding support in the community.’

As a baby friendly hospital, Tawam organized the event during National Breastfeeding week November 9th – 15th to highlight the importance and benefits of breastfeeding for the mother and newborn child.

“As a Hospital we have an obligation to support at all levels of Health care and to educate women and their families about the benefits of breastfeeding. The event was organized to raise awareness about breastfeeding, to answer any questions that new mothers had and to highlight the fact that breastfeeding is the healthiest option for bother the most and child. The response we have had so far has been extremely positive,” said Ines Haddad/ OB Word Nurse Manger at Tawam Hospital.

Throughout the day a wide range of educational materials in English and Arabic were distributed to patients and families. This included a booklet on how to breastfeed your baby , how to prepare  formula for bottle feeding, off to the best start, how to prepare formula for cup feeding at home and pre-post natal exercises.

The event began at 10:00 with a welcome speech from Lactation consultant, Rosie Edmonds and was followed by a Q&A session, a short DVD on the importance of skin to skin contact, a key note speech by Dr. Evelyn Ruff, lactation consultant from Breastfeeding Freinds, Sharjah and a talk on the Physiological importance of family support by Dr. Essam.

“As yet in Al Ain there is no formal Mother to Mother Support group, however what we do have is a network of Lactation Consultants spread throughout the PHCS,” said Rosemary Edmonds/ International Board Certified Lactation Consultant.

There are many benefits of breastfeeding, for the mother, some of these include; promoting a healthy bond between the mother and baby, decreasing the risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer as well helping the nursing mother to loose weight after the baby is born. For the baby, the benefits of being breastfed include; decreased chance of developing urinary tract infections, a higher I.Q than babies who are fed formula and less risk of developing type 1 diabetes, to name a few.