A new law in the United Arab Emirates makes it compulsory for mothers to breastfeed their babies for two years. Under the legislation a wet nurse will be provided for any woman who is unable to breastfeed for health reasons. This sounds like gagging mothers to do their duty and responsibility, and it sounds controversial to me. But this is an indication of how public health authorities and governments are struggling to ensure that all newborn babies enjoy their fundamental human right to be breast fed.

This year (2014) the world will mark World Breastfeeding Week from August 1st to August 7th in almost all countries. Many events on breast feeding will be held in many countries by several organizations and participants worldwide. This is done to encourage mother’s to breastfeed their babies for the first six months in order to get the incredible health benefits, to fulfill all vital nutrients, to encourage the mother to promote the healthy growth and development of their child, and to guard the child from lethal health problems and diseases including neonatal jaundice, pneumonia, cholera and many more.

To me this creates a chance to give a newborn baby its fundamental human right to access basic natural healthcare from its mother. The creation of breast feeding awareness was the first event and activity I was first engaged in when I arrived at my placement site in Kyangwali with Action Africa Help International (AAHI). I came here in August 2013 as a Global Health Corps Fellow to serve as a Health Officer with AAHI under its refugee care program. AAHI is an African-led, international non-governmental organisation, based in Nairobi, Kenya, that supports livelihood-challenged communities in East and Southern Africa to find sustainable methods to improve well-being and standard of living. With country programs in Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia, AAHI has over 20 years of experience working with communities in conflict and post-conflict situations, including refugees, internally displaced people, and host communities. More recently, it has expanded its activities to work with other marginalized communities including pastoralists and urban slum dwellers.

Under the organization’s refugee care program, AAHI is an implementing partner with the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) to provide basic primary health care services to the refugees in the Kyangwali refugee settlement camp. We are strongly encouraging mothers to breastfeed, and we have gone an extra mile to provide proper maternal support to mothers who fail to breast feed due to non medical reasons. We are not forcing mothers to breastfeed like what the United Arab Emirates is doing, but we are creating an environment where mothers find it easy to exclusively breast feed, without infringing on the rights of the mother or the baby.

Finally, I think there is a need to create a supportive postnatal care frame work for mothers that will help them adopt and prioritize breastfeeding their baby with ease in the first six months. Also, governments and all public health institutions should not pass laws that infringe on the fundamental freedoms of mothers. I know there are several reasons and factors that make it difficult for a number of new mothers to breast feed. These factors that hinder exclusive breastfeeding should be the focal points for governments to address, and make it easy for mothers to breastfeed. If this is done, breastfeeding will be well embraced, and both the mother and the baby will have their fundamental human rights and freedoms protected.

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