A Midwife at Accra Regional Hospital, Charity Dufie Amponsah says artificial breastfeeding or feeding infants by any preparation other than breast milk is not healthy.

She said this may affect their health and development.

Madam Amponsah said this in an interview with Joy Prime's Roselyn Felli on Prime Morning Tuesday as the world celebrates World Breastfeeding Week from 1^st to 7^th August, 2022.

According to her, artificial breastfeeding causes health hazards to babies as some mothers do not really have the knowledge of mixing the food for the babies.

“Some babies, when you give them artificial milk, they get constipation. Some also get diarrhea. And you know, sometimes mixing the artificial feed also, most people just mix it. They just don’t know how to mix the artificial feeding,”

“We think there are side effects because, the breast milk contains all the nutrients that the baby needs, and so we don’t encourage the artificial milk because we believe that there has been a research that proves that breast milk is the best for the baby for the first 6 months in that it builds the baby’s immunity,” she said.

She added that absorbing fluids into the system enables mothers to generate more breast milk and keeps babies healthy as well.

"So when you take in more fluids, it helps you produce more breast milk. And so taking soups, water, roasted corn for instance will make you feel thirsty so you’ll take in a lot of water, and so when you take in more fluids, you produce more breast milk."

She has however encouraged mothers to continuously breastfeed their babies for 2 years.

Meanwhile, speaking on the same show, another Midwife, Christiana Fiadonu cautioned mothers to avoid giving water to babies as it affects their immune system.

“Water affects the baby because their stomachs are very small. So when you fill it with water, the breast milk that the baby needs to develop, the baby takes just a little, and that will not let your baby grow and develop well,” she cautioned.