Tangerang regency has launched a breast-feeding campaign in a bid to reduce the mortality rate of newborn babies in the region.
To raise awareness of the program, the regency's health agency briefed local journalists in Karawaci on Wednesday, in a session featuring Utami Roesli of the Indonesia Lactation Center and senior journalist Irwan Julianto of Kompas daily as key speakers.
"We believe we cannot address health problems without the help of media reports to stimulate the active participation of community members in this program," head of the health agency Hani Heryanto said during the session.
He said there had been 2,895 infant malnutrition cases in the regency last year and it was estimated 2,900 infants would die this year before celebrating their first birthday.
Hani said agency officials had conducted a road show throughout the regency's 36 districts and had already registered as many as 2,008 pregnant women who had committed to breast-feeding their babies.
The administration and Care International Indonesia have also organized New Movement of Healthy Children 2008, a public information session that will be held at World Harvest in Karawaci on Thursday.
The breast-feeding program seeks to promote the practice of letting infants breast-feed for one hour just 20 minutes after delivery.
"We have to put the babies on their mothers' breasts 20 minutes after delivery and let them crawl and find their mothers' nipples," Utami said, during the screening of a video of her grandchild's first time breast-feeding.
In the video, the baby boy crawled across his mother's chest licking his own hand and his mother's breast until he finally managed to find his mother's nipple with his mouth.
The infant did not breast-feed immediately but licked the skin around his mother's nipple for a few minutes and kicked his mother's stomach gently.
"When the infant licks the mother's breast skin, he is removing all bacteria from the skin.
"The soft massage to his mother's stomach could help the healing process in her womb," Utami said.
She said she was inspired by research out of the United Kingdom showing newborn infants are able to crawl on their mother's breast to find their own way to breast-feed.
The research concluded breast-feeding could reduce the mortality rate of newborn infants by 22 percent.
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