I've been breastfeeding my child since birth' Fatoumata

Fatoumata Camara, a vaccinator for the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) at the Ansoumania health centre in the Kagbelen commune of Conakry, Guinea, vaccinates children and women every day, while encouraging and raising awareness among mothers and future mothers about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for up to six months and beyond.
Fatoumata manages to balance her professional life with her role as a mother, often bringing her 4-month-old daughter to the health centre. Convinced of the benefits of breast milk, she exclusively breast-feeds her child. This personal experience enriches her advice to mothers who come to vaccinate their children. Based on her own experience with her daughter, she raises their awareness and shows them good breastfeeding practices: "Breastfeeding provides all the nutrition a child needs to grow. Breastfeeding doesn't give the baby a bloated tummy. Because of its importance, I have chosen to breastfeed my child exclusively. My aim is for all mothers to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months or more.
She tells mothers that breastfeeding is the only food babies need for the first six months of their lives. It helps prevent disease and stimulates brain development. Breastfeeding also improves a child's quality of life by promoting cognitive development and health, which in turn offers better prospects for the future.
In Guinea, only 1 in 4 babies are breastfed within the first hour of life, and only 43.7% of children under 6 months are exclusively breastfed. Yet in addition to its nutritional benefits, breastfeeding protects babies against many childhood diseases. It also reduces the risk of diabetes, obesity and certain cancers in women, while strengthening the bond between mother and child, as Fatoumata explains in her awareness campaigns:

"It reduces the risk of breast cancer and strengthens the mother-child bond. The advice I provide to mothers is not to give their child water, so as not to harm its health."

UNICEF and WHO join forces with ministries of health and civil society to support World Breastfeeding Week, which is celebrated every year from 1 to 7 August. In Guinea, thanks to the Government of Japan and the Fonds français Muskoka, UNICEF is supporting the Guinean government and communities to promote and increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding to ensure a healthy future for all the country's children.