How does UNICEF expect nursing mothers to produce milk when they have no access to clean water?
UNICEF Calls on Iraq’s Mothers to Breast-Feed
The children’s charity is promoting breast-feeding to help prevent diseases.
BAGHDAD, Aug. 13, 2007: With severe heat and water shortages still plaguing much of Iraq, UNICEF is warning women here with young children to take precautions.
The global aid agency is calling on mothers to exclusively breast-feed babies – rather than use infant formula – to help prevent dangerous waterborne diseases and improve nutrition.
The combination of heat, unsafe water and unhygienic conditions in many of Iraq’s cities and temporary camps could spark a diarrhea outbreak in very young children, causing dehydration, malnutrition and possibly even death, the agency warns.
VIOLENCE TAKING TOLL ON PREGNANT MOTHERS, INFANTS
According to doctors, dozens of women in Iraq each day face delivery difficulties caused by violence and the curfew that is preventing access to health care during the night. ‘For at least two women in every 12 who seek emergency delivery assistance here, either the mother or her child dies,’ said Dr. Ibrahim Khalil, a gynecologist at Al-Karada maternity hospital.