During World Breastfeeding Week (1st August to 7th August), the world considers how breastfeeding is the foundation of a healthy life. Recently, actress, producer and environmental friend Dia Mirza, who became a mother for the first time, has also expressed her views on this occasion. The actress says, "We shouldn't need any special day to understand, know and accept how essential and natural the act of breastfeeding is. After becoming a mother, my awareness about breastfeeding has increased. The U.S. is realizing more seriously that the safety and convenience of breastfeeding in public places is not available to all. If a mother is socially and economically backward, works or works as a labourer on a farm, runs a handcart or on the road if she sells goods or vegetables by sitting on the bank, then where does she go to feed her child?"
Dia Mirza is surprised that on the one hand, we do not get tired of praising the mother and on the other hand, seeing a woman feeding milk in a public place, we look at her with a view of torture and put her to shame. She further says, "Breastfeeding in public places is a legal right in countries like Belgium, but in our country first we have to change the mindset that considers breastfeeding a shameful act if it is done in public. Feeding a baby is natural, Innocent and pure, but still, we associate negative feelings like guilt, shame with it."
The actress believes that women in rural areas go through even more trouble because there is a lack of accurate information related to motherhood and fertility and this pandemic has taken a worse effect on their economic, physical and mental health. Dia says, "There has been a decline in the statistics of breastfeeding in the first hour after birth in rural areas, although according to the World Health Organization (WHO) the sooner breastfeeding is done, the better it is for the health of the child.
WHO also stated that babies who are deprived of breast milk in the first six months of life have a profound effect on their health and immunity. But perhaps many rural women are not even aware of all these things. One should worry that malnutrition and the infant mortality rate is very high in India and we should make a lot of efforts to reduce it.
Dia believes that women should get full support from communities, society and family for breastfeeding and they should also be given all kinds of help and the right information. Women who are deprived of facilities and information should be given adequate nutrition, mental strength and safe places along with understanding the right way of breastfeeding. "The time has come for us to consider breastfeeding as a normal practice because no one in the world has the right to deprive a mother of her right to breastfeed her baby," says Dia.
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