Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 25 / Trend T. Hajiyev /
Azerbaijan hosted a conference on the problems of feeding infants breast milk.
National Conference "Current problems and prospects in feeding infants breast milk in Azerbaijan" held within the cooperation of Heydar Aliyev Foundation and UNICEF with the Azerbaijani Government.
According to Heydar Aliyev Foundation's representative Ilgar Mustafayev, who made opening address, artificial feeding causes a range of topical problems, in connection with which the Foundation holds active work to solve this issue.
UNICEF Baku Office head Mark Hereward said that breast-feeding prevents the development of respiratory diseases in infants and breast cancer in mothers.
"Today only 12 percent of mothers around the world fed babies breast milk. It's necessary to study social problems that arise when feeding breast milk. We can not allow a few generations in Azerbaijan to grow up with artificial feeding," Hereward said.
According to the chairman of the parliamentary commission on social policy Hadi Rajabli, Azerbaijan passed a law on breastfeeding a few years ago.
"The adoption of this law was social order, and the initiative of doctors by profession, represented in the Parliament. When preparing the draft law international experience has been taken into account. But at the moment the achieved results don't meet our goals. Therefore, it's necessary to discuss drafts on amendments and additions to the law in the parliament," Rajabli said.
Addressing the conference MP Ganira Pashayeva stressed the necessity of serious efforts to solve the problem.
"The press and the media structures can conduct this work in the community. To this end, social video reels should be made for the promotion of breastfeeding. These videos reels should be broadcasted during hours when a great number of people watch television," she added.
Only 50 percent of children less than one year of age in the regions are fed breast milk, in Baku the figure is 45-48 percent, the Director of Scientific Research Pediatrics Institute Nasib Guliyev said during the presentation. According to him, despite the increase in percentage, the desired result has not been reached yet.
"In 98-99 percent of cases the renunciation of breastfeeding is due to subjective reasons, and only 1-2 percent - hypogalactia. Feeding babies breast milk plays a huge role in their health. In addition, women, feeding children breast milk face breast cancer rarely" Guliyev said.