By Solomon Gumah, GNA
Tamale, Aug 04, GNA – Mrs Olivia Mawunyo Timpo, the Deputy Director in-charge of Nutrition at the Ghana Health Service, has called on traditional and religious leaders to use their influences to dispel harmful cultural misconceptions that discourage exclusive breastfeeding.
She said entrenched myths, including beliefs that newborns should be given water, herbal preparations or solid foods before six months, continued to undermine efforts to improve child nutrition and survival.
Mrs Timpo made the call when she delivered the keynote address at a Breastfeeding Symposium, held in Tamale, as part of the week-long activities of the 2026 Ghana Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Conference in Tamale.
The symposium, on the theme: “Breastfeeding for Sustainable Start in Life,” brought together health professionals, representatives of civil society organisations, government agencies, development partners, students and other stakeholders to discuss ways of promoting optimal breastfeeding practices in Ghana.
The event also featured a panel discussion on “Shared Responsibility: Creating Breastfeeding-Friendly Environments at Home, Work and Health Facilities” where participants examined the roles of families, employers, communities and health institutions in supporting breastfeeding mothers.
Mrs Timpo described exclusive breastfeeding as the most effective, affordable and natural intervention for addressing the country’s growing burden of malnutrition, saying breast milk remained nature’s perfect food for infants.
She said Ghana continued to grapple with the triple burden of malnutrition including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity, all of which posed serious public health and socio-economic challenges.
She stated that malnutrition does not affect only the physical health of children but also undermined their cognitive development, educational attainment, and future productivity, while increasing healthcare costs for families and the nation.
Mrs Timpo stressed that the first six months of a child’s life presented a critical opportunity to secure healthy growth through exclusive breastfeeding, which involved feeding infants with only breast milk without water or any other food.
She explained that breast milk contained antibodies, living cells, and protective enzymes that naturally protected infants against diarrhoea, pneumonia, and other life-threatening infections.
Again, breast milk also provided the exact balance of proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals required for optimal physical growth and brain development, she said, adding that research consistently showed that children who were exclusively breastfed, had lower risks of obesity, diabetes, and other non-communicable diseases later in life, making breastfeeding an important investment in lifelong health.
Mrs Timpo debunked the widespread misconception that babies required water during hot weather explaining that breast milk contained more than 80 per cent water, which was sufficient to satisfy an infant’s thirst even under the prevailing high temperatures in northern Ghana.
She urged traditional and religious leaders to champion behaviour change in their communities by discouraging the early introduction of water, herbal mixtures and complementary foods before infants reached six months of age.
She pleaded that the success of exclusive breastfeeding should not be placed solely on mothers but required the collective support of families, communities, employers, and healthcare providers.
She also appealed to fathers to actively support breastfeeding mothers by sharing household responsibilities, ensuring they had access to nutritious meals and providing emotional support to enable them to exclusively breastfeed their babies.
Mrs Timpo also called on employers to establish breastfeeding-friendly workplaces by creating lactation rooms and providing conducive environments for nursing mothers to express and safely store breast milk.
She urged health workers to provide compassionate counselling and skilled lactation support during antenatal and child welfare services, saying the Ghana Health Service was working to establish more lactation support rooms in health facilities across the country.
Mrs Timpo said protecting, promoting and supporting exclusive breastfeeding would help reduce infant mortality, lower hospital admissions, improve child nutrition and contribute to stronger food systems and national development.
GNA
Edited by Eric K Amoh/ Christabel Addo
Reporter: Solomon Gumah, GNA
Writer’s Email: [email protected]