The Cuban Milk League and the Ministry of Public Health promote breastfeeding as the best food for girls and boys up to six months of age.
Photo: Jorge Luis Banos/IPS
Havana, Aug 6.- Face-to-face and virtual activities for mothers, fathers, families, health personnel and articulations with national institutions include the World Breastfeeding Week, which the Cuban Milk League promotes until August 10. .
According to Micelys Torres, leader of the Cuban Milk League (LLLCuba), this is always a space to focus on a global level based on support, education and training in breastfeeding.
Above all, he stressed, in regard to the chain of effective support for breastfeeding: the various actors in society that affect its different stages.
According to Torres, who was formed as the leader of the Liga de la Leche in Mexico, this organization began its actions in Cuba in June 2019 and, in August of that year, celebrated World Breastfeeding Week for the first time, with a event that brought together few people.
Since then, in 2020 and 2021, due to the covid-19 contingency, the league celebrated breastfeeding week virtually and this year, 2022, “a program that combines virtual with face-to-face” was organized.
Event activities this year
This August 7 will take place the meeting “Parents also speak: breastfeeding and parenthood”, in the Quinta de los Molinos.
The program also included, on the 5th, the face-to-face event “The art of breastfeeding”, in the Amphitheater of the Historic Center of Havana, organized in conjunction with the Breastfeeding Committee of the Ministry of Public Health.
In times of pandemic, the League of Milk in Cuba maintained its actions on virtual social networks, an experience that takes advantage of the week, to carry out on August 10 an initiative aimed at health personnel on support and accompaniment to mothers and infant families.
According to reports, Pablo Roque, national coordinator of the Breastfeeding Program of the Ministry of Public Health, also coordinated with the Center for Health Promotion (Prosalud), is participating in this meeting. The virtual sessions are held in the LLLCuba group on Telegram: https://t.me/LLLCubaGA.
A support that does not stop
During the week, the international organization seeks to establish breastfeeding as part of good nutrition, food security and reduction of inequalities.
In addition, it seeks to influence action to strengthen the capacity of local actors and systems for transformative change and emphasizes interaction with people and organizations throughout the effective support chain.
According to the LLLCuba leader, the league is not an organization that convenes and organizes actions only during the week, “on the contrary, day by day, it creates conditions for breastfeeding, providing support and training.”
In Cuba, he maintained, “although we are returning to face-to-face meetings, with monthly meetings, which should resume after September, virtual support groups for mothers and pregnant women will continue to prepare for breastfeeding.”
For this, four WhatsApp groups work 24 hours a day, where mothers find information, support, understanding and experiences, based on practical and scientific evidence. Also, they exchange through a Telegram channel, the last Thursday of each month.
“For many mothers who do not live in Havana, this continues to be the option of approaching the Liga de la Leche and feeling accompanied,” Torres pointed out.
As he announced, the face-to-face support groups will begin in the Cuban capital, where there are leaders of the league. “The presentiality offers experiences and opportunities that the virtual does not allow”, she insisted.
open the horizon
In the expansion of their work, they plan to “create accompaniment and training spaces for institutions that care for babies and young children of working mothers: care, nurseries and, if possible, children’s circles, to sensitize this group in particular.”
When children are older than one year, Torres reflected, breastfeeding is not valued, and even “it is prosecuted for prejudice or, simply, it is not visible.”
As he said, there are myths against breastfeeding and these mothers do not receive the support and accompaniment they need when they leave their baby in those spaces.
“On the other hand, he assured, we want to maintain the link with the Maternal and Child Care Program (PAMI), since health personnel are a fundamental actor in this effective chain of support around breastfeeding, from pregnancy to the first month of life, to accompany nursing mothers”. (2022)