Exclusive Breastfeeding: Father of Four Urges Husbands to Support Wives for Babies’ Optimal Growth

Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

As the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Bauchi Field Office, re-emphasised the need for parents in the state to embrace exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of a child’s life, a farmer and resident of Bauchi State, Mallam Salisu Murtala, called on husbands to support their wives to practise exclusive breastfeeding for optimal growth and development of their babies.

Murtala, who spoke with our correspondent in an interview at Miri Primary Health Care (PHC), Miri, Bauchi Local Government Area (LGA), at the weekend, said, “Every husband must ensure that his wife practises exclusive breastfeeding of their baby.”

UNICEF, Bauchi Field Office, had consistently stressed the need for parents in the state to embrace exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of a child’s life.

It urged the state government to initiate a policy that will grant six months’ maternity leave for nursing working mothers, which, according to it, will ensure exclusive breastfeeding for their babies without distractions.

UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Dr. Nuzhat Rafique, who addressed journalists in her office recently as part of activities to commemorate the 2025 World Breastfeeding Week, expressed concern over the high number of malnourished children in the state.

Rafique stated that fighting malnutrition started with ensuring that the child was exclusively breastfed for six months.

Speaking to THISDAY, Murtala narrated how he initially failed to deploy his influence and knowledge as a father and an informed citizen, despite the sustained campaign by UNICEF and partners to promote exclusive breastfeed for children in the state

According to him, “I feel very sad for not supporting my wife earlier on to practise exclusive breastfeeding. Out of my four children, two of them that were exclusively breastfed are looking healthier than the others, I must confess.

“I heard about this exclusive breastfeeding practice on the radio through interviews and special programmes for some years but I never took them seriously, until my medical doctor friend encouraged me, and I was really impressed when my wife started practising it with our third child”.

Also narrating his experience, Mallam Dahiru Gadau, a 53-year-old husband of three wives and 11 children, said initially he was opposed to the practice of exclusive breastfeeding based on cultural belief, which gaves nursing mothers the ground to administer drinking water and breast milk to their babies right from birth.

Gadau confessed that out of his 11 children, only four were nursed with exclusive breastfeeding, affirming that they are healthier than the other seven due to the awareness being given by health care workers and the traditional leaders in the area.

He explained that he was among the volunteers being trained by the primary health care centre in the area, which was helping to disseminate the useful information to other fathers in the area.

Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of the baby’s life has been scientifically proven to give and develop in infants all the necessary things they need to grow stronger, smarter and brighter, thus, impacting in the socio-economic development of the country.