Successful breastfeeding depends on the wider culture making it easier.
On Saturday, August 29, 2026, Dr. Amaka Nnamani, Class of 2000, delivered a presentation titled “It Takes a Village, Not Just a Mother: Reimagining How We Support Breastfeeding” during DIAA’s monthly Knowledge Sharing Series.
The presentation produced many lessons.
1. Breastfeeding Is a Community Responsibility
Breastfeeding happens between a mother and a baby, but the conditions that determine whether it succeeds are created by many people.
Dr. Nnamani explained that partners, grandparents, relatives, friends, employers, doctors and the wider community can strengthen or weaken a mother’s ability to breastfeed.
A partner can help with household tasks, family members can encourage rather than criticise. Employers can provide privacy and safe storage for expressed milk.
These actions remove some of the physical and emotional pressure from the mother.
Breastfeeding works better when the people around the mother make it easier.
2. Colostrum Is Valuable and Newborns Don’t Routinely Need Water
Dr. Nnamani challenged two breastfeeding myths.
The first is that colostrum, the thick first milk produced after birth, is dirty and should be discarded. She described colostrum as concentrated immune protection for the newborn and explained why it is called the baby’s first vaccine.
The second is the belief that a newborn needs water, glucose water or herbal drinks before the mother’s milk fully comes in.
She explained that breast milk already supplies a newborn’s hydration needs and that unnecessary liquids may expose the baby to infection or disturb the body’s fluid balance.
Traditions should be respected, but we shouldn’t preserve practices that have been shown to be harmful.
3. Mothers Need Support, Not Guilt
Some women can’t produce enough milk. Some experience delayed milk production after a caesarean section. Others face medical or emotional circumstances that make exclusive breastfeeding difficult.
Breastfeeding has important benefits, but motherhood shouldn’t be a competition over who can suffer the most. A mother needs accurate information, realistic support and the freedom to make an informed decision about what is possible for her and her baby.
Advocacy should give women better options, not another reason to feel inadequate.
4. Working Mothers Need Support Systems
Dr. Nnamani described how short maternity leave, lack of pumping spaces, inadequate refrigeration and rigid working conditions can make continued breastfeeding very difficult.
A woman may want to breastfeed and find that her workplace makes it impossible.
This is where employers and policymakers become part of the breastfeeding village.
A private space for expressing milk, reasonable breaks, flexible work arrangements and safe refrigeration makes a difference. Maternity leave and paternity leave can give families time to establish routines and share responsibilities during the most demanding early weeks.
When workplaces are designed as though employees never become parents, mothers are forced to solve a system problem individually.
5. We Need to Update the Traditional Support System
Dr. Nnamani discussed omugwo, the Igbo tradition in which a mother or older female relative supports a woman after childbirth.
Her point was that African communities already have a support system, but the challenge is to preserve the care and shared responsibility while updating practices that are based on outdated information.
Grandmothers and aunties can become powerful breastfeeding advocates when they understand why early breastfeeding, colostrum and exclusive breastfeeding matter. Fathers can become active partners. Children can grow up seeing breastfeeding as ordinary rather than strange.
Culture isn’t fixed. It changes when people learn, discuss and do something differently.
Memorable Quote from the Presentation
“Culture is written by the people around the mother, not by the mother alone.”