New features of breast milk | Burcu Kayhan Tetik |

Summary :
⁣In our country, the “Breast Milk Encouragement and Baby-Friendly Health Institutions Program” was started in 1991. This program, proposed by WHO and UNICEF, aims to transform all health institutions into baby-friendly health institutions to support breastfeeding. For this purpose, it is tried to ensure that every baby who comes to the world is introduced to the first breast milk. Many new features of breast milk, which is so miraculous, have been described. When both mother and baby are sick, the number of leukocytes increases 64 times in breast milk. But only baby is sick the number of leukocytes increases 13 times. Lactoferrin, an acute phase reactant, is increased in breast milk before the baby is sick. It is known that the baby gives the information that he will get sick from the mother’s breast with his saliva. It is known that if the baby has the FADS2 gene, s\he has a IQ 6.8 points higher than other children and the enzyme that activates this gene is found in breast milk. Breast milk provides an ideal nutritional feature for the microbiota in our intestines, which is the second brain of our body. Despite so many new features of breast milk, the number of breastfed babies is still not at the desired level. In order to create healthy generations, we must work to increase the number of breastfed babies.


About Author :
⁣As of 2010, I started to work on breast milk and breastfeeding consultancy. As of 2010, I started to work as a field supervisor and trainer of “National Baby-Friendly Health Programs” under the Ministry of Health of Turkiye. For nearly 12 years, I have evaluated many hospitals and primary health care institutions in Turkey with this perspective. For 1.5 years, I have evaluated immigrant health centers in many provinces in Turkey, especially in the south and southeast, in terms of baby-friendly health institutions, and I have provided consultancy services for them to participate in this formation. I supported the writing of the Turkish Ministry of Health’s breast milk breastfeeding counseling book according to the WHO’s baby-friendly health programs guide.