The Sharjah Baby-Friendly Campaign (SBFC) has launched an awareness campaign about the benefits of breastfeeding, held as part of the Breastfeeding Week, taking place from May 12th until November 30th, to ensure a better healthy life for future generations in the emirate.

The World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year in August each year, but the SBFC campaign launched it early in the Emirate of Sharjah and extended it through November, to allow for a wider participation by all segments of society, and to attract a greater number of companies and institutions to contribute to raising awareness about the importance and benefits of breastfeeding, encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies in the emirate.

The awareness campaign, announced at a special event at the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), the official sponsor of the breastfeeding week, aims to step up efforts in the field of health education and promoting healthy concepts about breastfeeding, through educational lectures, and distribution of booklets and pamphlets about pregnancy and childbirth.

The event started with a speech by Dr. Hessa Khalfan Al Ghazal, Director of the Executive Committee of the SBFC, followed by a speech by Mariam Saif Al Shamsi, General Manager Assistant of Human, Finance and Information Resources SCCI.

During the event, female employees and working mothers highlighted the lack of support at private companies and organisations, calling for the need to support breastfeeding employees by providing them with the facilities and allowing them to have nursing breaks to breastfeed their babies.
   
The breastfeeding campaign also aims to provide health guidance and advices for pregnant women on how to maintain a healthy pregnancy and ensure the health of fetus and provide them with health information on pregnancy and childbirth.

The SBFC Campaign, which was launched in March 2012, is in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi and under the generous patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Wife of the Ruler of Sharjah and Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, aims to transform Sharjah into an entirely baby-friendly environment by the end of this year.

Speaking about the campaign, Dr. Hessa Khalfan Al Ghazal, Director of the Executive Committee of the SBFC, said: "The Breastfeeding Week comes in line with the key goal for which the Sharjah Baby-Friendly Campaign (SBFC) was launched, and is in keeping with our drive to increase breastfeeding rates in the emirate by providing all possible facilities for working women to enable them to breastfeed during working hours, thus encouraging women to breastfeed their babies."

She pointed out that that breastfeeding has health and psychological benefits for both the mother and her infant whereas a child who is breastfed is almost three times more likely to survive infancy than a child who is not breastfed. Though breastfeeding rates are increasing in the developing world, an estimated 63 percent of children, who are under 6 months of age, are still not adequately breastfed.

Breastfeeding is beneficial to infant and society, because it strengthens the bonds of love and relationship between the mother and her infant, and helps a baby to live healthy and have a stronger immunity, thus avoiding several diseases in the future, Dr Hessa Al Ghazal added.

Mariam Saif Al Shamsi, General Manager Assistant of Human, Finance and Information Resources SCCI, said: “Our collaboration with the Sharjah Baby-Friendly Campaign and sponsorship of the SBFC Breastfeeding Week and awareness campaign stems from our long-standing commitment to supporting health and community initiatives for the good of our society. We believe such initiatives are much needed to encourage women to breastfeed their babies and not to use milk formula, as well as to highlight the positive benefits of breastfeeding for women and their babies."

The Breastfeeding Week features educational lectures at several institutions and public places and nurseries, as well as special events for working mothers in order to enhance awareness and encourage breastfeeding, as well as distributing gifts and 5,000 DVD containing useful medical and health information on pregnancy and childbirth.

The Breastfeeding Week also includes distribution of educational publications and posters on various government agencies, companies and institutions in the emirate and distribution of posters and advertisements throughout streets across the Emirate of Sharjah as well as 30 roll-ups to government and private hospitals.

Gifts of promotional items will be distributed to women, while the Sharjah Cooperative Society is participating in the breastfeeding week by printing advertisements and messages related to breastfeeding on shopping bags.

Other events also include a conference on childbirth and breastfeeding will be held in October to highlight the importance of breastfeeding for mother and her child, and work to raise breastfeeding rates by increasing the number of health professionals in the UAE who are qualified to help mothers learn the safest breastfeeding practices for their babies, in order to ensure that all health facilities, nurseries become entirely baby-friendly places.