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Roselyne Sachiti in Copenhagen, Denmark

In a number of countries and cultures around the world, the female breast is seen as a sex symbol. In Zimbabwe, it is taboo for non-breastfeeding women to expose their breasts in public for any reason as such are seen as soliciting for sex and deemed immoral or even insane. But in this same country, the barriers are lifted when it comes to breastfeeding as women can pull out their breasts anywhere if need to feed their babies arises.

In many cases men using public transport have insisted that women with crying babies should breastfeed and calm them showing how they view the breast as a tool of development in terms of child nutrition.

This societal acceptance and positive mindset has helped many women breastfeed in public gatherings, when using public transport or even in the presence of in-laws.

Whether big or small, the breast gets the job done and has huge nutritional benefits for children placing women at the heart of development.

But, a sizable number of professional Zimbabwean women spend thousands of dollars on baby formula to bottle feed their babies yet breastfeeding is free.

To some women, giving children formula is a status symbol but to others work pressure has resulted in them not exclusively breastfeeding as they shift between the breast and bottle for baby feeding during the first six months.

Despite Zimbabwean labour laws permitting women three months maternity leave and also early departure from work to breastfeed and the breastfeeding hour during work, only 41 percent of women both employed and unemployed exclusively breastfeed during the first six months of a baby’s life according to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014 (MICS).

To protect breastfeeding, Zimbabwe is one of the 37 countries that fully adopted the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.

The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes is an international health policy framework for breastfeeding promotion adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1981.

The Code was developed as a global public health strategy and recommends restrictions on the marketing of breastmilk substitutes, such as infant formula, to ensure that mothers are not discouraged from breastfeeding and that substitutes are used safely if needed.

The Code also covers ethical considerations and regulations for the marketing of feeding bottles and teats.

In Zimbabwe, urban areas, Bulawayo and Harare, had the highest percentage of children who were bottle fed 25,9 percent and 22,6 percent respectively, according to MICS.

Yet, improving exclusive breastfeeding practices has economic benefits and can result in the successful realisation of Sustainable Development Goals.

Speaking to journalists during a Population Reference Bureau, media training ahead of the Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, Hellen Keller International vice president Mette Kinoti Kjaer, outlined the link between breastfeeding and achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

She said SDGs number 1, 8, and 10: end poverty; promote economic growth and reduce inequalities could be achieved if women exclusively breastfed their children during the first six months of life.

She said globally, only 39 percent women exclusively breastfed during this critical time in child nutrition.

“Improving breastfeeding practices could save more than 820 000 lives per year.

“Globally, the cost of lower cognitive ability associated with not breastfeeding amounts to $300 billion annually, representing 0,49 percent of global gross national income.

“The health benefits associated with optimal breastfeeding could save billions of dollars in healthcare costs each year by dramatically reducing hospital admissions for infectious diseases,” she said.

According to a publication, The Lancet Series Volume 387, released in January this year, sales of bottled feeding formula were an estimated $44 billion annually and could go up to $70 billion by 2019.

“What is sad is that the industry can set the agenda making it difficult to promote breastfeeding,” she added.

She said exclusive breastfeeding has numerous benefits as it is the first vaccine, protects newly born babies against pneumonia and diarrhoea and also against obesity and diabetes.

Goals 2 and 3: achieve zero hunger; and improve health and well-being at all ages.

“Breastmilk provides 100 percent of a child’s energy needs for the first six months of life; half or more of energy needs from six to12 months and one of energy needs between 12 and 24 months.

“Breastfeeding could save the lives of 820 000 children under five each year,” she said.

She added that infants younger than six months who are not exclusively breastfed were three times more likely to die than those who received any breastmilk.

“Improved breastfeeding practices could prevent nearly half of all diarrhoea episodes and one third respiratory infections.

“An additional 20 000 maternal lives can be saved from breast cancer.

“Breastmilk can also decrease the prevalence of overweight and diabetes later in life,” she added.

SDG Goal 4 focuses on ensuring quality education and the breast can also aid to the realization of this goal.

According to Kinoti Kjaer, breastfeeding is associated with an average three-point increase in IQ among children and adolescents when controlling the maternal intelligence.

Greater cognitive ability leads to increased productivity and earnings and also to be better learning and literacy outcomes.

Goal 5 foucses on achieving gender equality. When women breastfeed, they have longer periods of infertility and improved birth spacing.

By decreasing unintended pregnancies, breastfeeding may allow more women and girls to stay in school, pursue careers and lead more equitable lives.

Kinoti Kjaer, believes that SDGs 12 and 15: ensure, sustainable consumption and production and improve life and land can be achieved if the breast is given a chance in exclusive feeding of the baby between zero and six months.

“Breastmilk is a renewable resource that is environmentally friendly, produced without pollution and consumed with a minimum ecological footprint.

“Breastmilk substitutes, alternatively, require energy for manufacturing, materials for packaging, fuel for distribution and water and toxic cleaning agents for daily preparation — all of which pollute the air, contaminate oceans and generates billions of tons of plastic and metal waste that ends up in landfills,” she said.

Yet in developed countries like the US and UK much lesser women exclusively breastfeed their children.

According to Kinoti Kjaer, the global South is faring better than the global north. She said only 19 percent of women in the US exclusively breastfeed while UK only had 1 percent women exclusively breastfeeding.

She also noted how countries like Brazil have enacted the breastfeeding laws and implemented policies which promote breastfeeding.

For example, Brazil established breast milk banks where women with excess breastmilk can donate breast milk at centres dotted around the country.

The breast milk donors call toll free numbers and vans collect the milk from where they would be.

The milk is tested for bacteria and given out for free.

According to Paulo Bonilha, Coordinator of the Children’s Health Programme at the Ministry of Health, Brazil has the largest network of breast milk banks in the world.

“We have more than 210 breast milk banks across every state in the country,” he told Unicef Brazil.

“Brazil has also created an important network outside our borders,

and now most South American countries have their own milk banks that were developed by Brazilian health workers.

“And, last year,” he continues, “we created the first human milk bank in Africa — in Cape Verde — and we hope to help create more milk banks in other African countries, doing so with low-cost technology that helps to save the lives of premature babies.”

Other countries like the Phillipines also provide breast milk from milk banks in disaster situations all in an effort to discourage feeding their children with formula.