BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

BRUNEIANS are still “a little conservative” when it comes to breastfeeding in public, said the advisor of the Women’s Institute.

Datin Hjh Masni Hj Mohd Ali hopes that this mentality would change for the benefit nursing babies.

“As one of the major NGOs in Brunei who constantly advocate breastfeeding, we want to let mothers know or realise that you can breastfeed anywhere,” she said at the sidelines of a nursing cover distribution event in the Children and Women’s Centre of the Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (RIPAS) Hospital yesterday.

“For example, women in London breastfeed everywhere - at bus stops, in the trains.

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of about breastfeeding in public because it’s a natural thing,” she said.

The WI yesterday distributed locally-made nursing covers to some 20 post-natal mothers in Ward 31 of the Children and Women’s Centre.

The nursing covers, which provide mothers a way to carry out breastfeeding in public, are part of the WI’s latest efforts to encourage regular breastfeeding by mothers in the country.

According to Datin Hjh Masni, the WI planned to distribute nursing covers monthly to post-natal mothers at the hospital.

Datin Hjh Masni also shared that the nursing covers were locally made, after the WI obtained cloth and sourced a tailor to make them.

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated annually around the globe from August 1 to 7.

Among the main benefits of breastfeeding include provision of protection to infants by giving them nutrients and antibodies, and protection against diseases.

It was previously reported that the Ministry of Health (MoH) has a set target to reach a 50 per cent exclusive breastfeeding rate by 2020.

The rate of exclusive breastfeeding in Brunei went up from 35 per cent in 2010 to 41 per cent in 2013.

The Brunei Times