Breastfeeding Week: Stakeholders Call For 6-Month Maternity Leave

Stakeholders have called on state governments yet to adopt six months of paid maternity leave, including Kano, to implement the policy, saying it is crucial to improving exclusive breastfeeding and reducing maternal and child deaths.

The call was made in Kano during a road walk organised by the Nutrition Unit of the Kano State Ministry of Health in collaboration with UNICEF to commemorate the 2026 World Breastfeeding Week.

The walk, themed, “Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works,” commenced at the School of Hygiene and ended at the Emir’s Palace.

Speaking at the event, Chief of UNICEF Kano Field Office, Mr Shafeeq Ur-Rehman, said many mothers return to work shortly after childbirth, making it difficult to exclusively breastfeed their babies for the recommended first six months.

He urged governments to introduce six months of paid maternity leave alongside breastfeeding-friendly workplace policies, including flexible work schedules, breastfeeding breaks, lactation rooms and facilities for safe storage of expressed breast milk.

According to him, only 14 states have adopted the policy, while Kano, Jigawa and Katsina are yet to implement it.

Ur-Rehman described breast milk as a child’s first protection against illness, malnutrition and preventable deaths, noting that scaling up breastfeeding could prevent hundreds of thousands of maternal and child deaths annually.

He, however, expressed concern that despite over 90 per cent of Nigerian mothers breastfeeding their children, optimal breastfeeding practices remain low, with fewer than one in 10 newborns breastfed within the first hour of birth and only about one in 10 infants exclusively breastfed for the first six months.

Kano State Nutrition Officer, Aishatu Suleiman, said the awareness campaign was aimed at promoting exclusive breastfeeding from birth to six months and continued breastfeeding up to two years.

She noted that breast milk provides all the nutrients infants require during their first six months, boosts immunity and helps prevent malnutrition, which is a major public health challenge in Kano State.

Also speaking, a representative of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Halima Katagum, said the agency continues to enforce regulations against the aggressive marketing of breast milk substitutes to safeguard and promote exclusive breastfeeding in Nigeria.