UM pediatric researcher comments on World Breastfeeding Week
This is World Breastfeeding Week, and the WHO and UNICEF are calling on governments to protect and promote women’s access to skilled breastfeeding counselling, a critical component of breastfeeding support. Breastfeeding provides optimal nutrition and immune protection to infants, including a plethora of health-promoting factors that support infant growth and development. The organizations state that increasing rates of exclusive breastfeeding could save the lives of 820 000 children every year, generating US $302 billion in additional income.
UM researcher Dr. Meghan Azad is Canada Research Chair in Developmental Origins of Chronic Disease and a research scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM). She was on CTV Winnipeg Morning Live to talk about the importance of breastfeeding.
Dr. Azad says that about 91 per cent of Canadian moms initiate breastfeeding, but only a third are still breastfeeding after six months.
The full CTV Morning Live interview is here.
Research at the University of Manitoba is partially supported by funding from the Government of Canada Research Support Fund.