Uganda issues breastfeeding guidelines

Women should breastfeed exclusively for the first six months, it is instructed, although slightly different advice is offered to HIV-positive women, as reported by kaisernetwork.org.

Health workers should attempt to determine the HIV status of pregnant and breastfeeding women in a bid to prevent mother-to-child transmission, although where adequate breast milk replacements are not available, those who have tested positive should still breastfeed for the first six months.

Under current guidelines, HIV testing should take place among infants at age of six weeks if they are born to affected women.

Health minister Stephen Mallinga says advice will be used by policymakers in the provision of maternal, child and reproductive health services in Uganda.

Last week, a US study conducted at the University of Pittsburgh found that women who breastfed for more than a year are ten per cent less likely to suffer strokes and heart disease than those who do not.