Climate Change Impact on Child Health: Breastfeeding as a Safeguard Protection Strategy
In Vietnam, World Vision International's Nutrition Club model is making a significant impact on child health and nutrition. This model, implemented since 2008 in several underserved provinces, aims to empower caregivers, particularly women, to improve childcare and nutrition practices, including breastfeeding.
The Nutrition Club model promotes exclusive breastfeeding, educating caregivers on its health benefits. Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child's life strengthens the immune system, reducing illnesses such as diarrhea and acute respiratory infections. It also lowers the risk of gastrointestinal infections, pneumonia, malnutrition, obesity, and allergic conditions. Breastfeeding contributes positively to psychosocial development by strengthening the emotional bond between mother and child.
Moreover, exclusive breastfeeding has environmental advantages. By promoting breastfeeding, the model indirectly reduces environmental waste and carbon emissions associated with formula feeding. Breastfeeding requires no industrial processing, packaging, transportation, or waste management, making it a more sustainable choice.
The outcomes of the Nutrition Club model align with the national objectives to reduce malnutrition among children under five. In 2024 alone, these efforts enabled 4,325 underweight children under five to recover from malnutrition. More than 1,500 Nutrition Clubs have been established, promoting exclusive breastfeeding practices and emphasising the involvement of fathers and extended families in supporting breastfeeding mothers.
The Nutrition Club model also advocates for women's empowerment, supporting mothers' rights to breastfeed within environments that are respectful, inclusive, and equitable. Breastmilk, universally recognised as the most complete and natural source of nutrition for infants and young children, offers substantial health benefits for mothers as well. Research indicates that breastfeeding lowers the risk of breast and ovarian cancers, type 2 diabetes, and osteoporosis. Breastfeeding also supports postpartum weight loss by expending approximately 500-700 kilocalories per day, aiding in maternal recovery.
Breastmilk contains essential antibodies, digestive enzymes, and long-chain fatty acids such as DHA and ARA, which support cognitive development, visual acuity, and immune function. Initiating breastfeeding within the first hour after birth reduces postpartum hemorrhage and associated complications.
The Nutrition Club model is designed based on community-specific needs, available resources, and local cultural practices. A community-driven sustainable model is being used to promote breastfeeding in Vietnam. If all mothers in Vietnam exclusively breastfed their children under six months, the environmental impact would be substantial, equivalent to planting approximately 300,000 trees per month of exclusive breastfeeding.
In a country where extreme weather events due to climate change disrupt livelihoods and pose threats to public health, particularly for pregnant women, mothers, and young children, the Nutrition Club model's efforts are vital. By promoting exclusive breastfeeding, the model not only improves child health outcomes but also enhances community resilience in the face of climate change.
[1] World Vision International. (n.d.). Nutrition Club. Retrieved from https://www.wvi.org/programmes/nutrition-club
- The Nutrition Club model, active in Vietnam since 2008, promotes research on exclusive breastfeeding and its benefits for child health and the environment.
- Exclusive breastfeeding not only strengthens children's immune systems but also lowers the risk of various health issues like diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, gastrointestinal infections, pneumonia, malnutrition, obesity, and allergic conditions.
- Through education, the Nutrition Club model encourages mothers to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of their child's life, contributing to both child and maternal health-and-wellness.
- By promoting exclusive breastfeeding, the model also helps reduce environmental waste and carbon emissions associated with formula feeding, making it a more sustainable choice under the umbrella of environmental-science.
- More than 1,500 Nutrition Clubs have been established in underserved provinces of Vietnam, emphasizing the involvement of fathers, extended families, and community members in supporting breastfeeding mothers and fostering parenting skills.
- Research indicates that breastfeeding lowers the risk of breast and ovarian cancers, type 2 diabetes, and osteoporosis in women, and supports postpartum weight loss through burning approximately 500-700 kilocalories per day.
- The Nutrition Club model advocates for women's empowerment by supporting mothers' rights to breastfeed in inclusive and equitable environments, which benefits womens-health and overall social development.
- In a world facing climate-change, the Nutrition Club model's focus on exclusive breastfeeding is particularly crucial for ensuring child health, resilience, and safeguarding the environment against climate-change risks.
