I Tried Exclusive Breastfeeding and was Successful!

My name is Meriati Lase, mother of two sons and three daughters. We live in a village in Botomuzoi sub district, in Nias District. People usually call me Ina Ferianus. I want to share our determination in looking after Noverius Lase, my fifth baby.

Love, Noverius Lase's nick name, was born in 2013. After the birth of Love, my husband and I discussed how we would look after Love and after how long we would feed Love with solid food, besides continuing to breastfeed her.

According to my previous experience in looking after my previous four children, I fed them with solid food after 3 months. We didn't know about exclusive breastfeeding, so we felt that we had made the right decision.

Moreover, our main job as rubber farmers demanded us to be at the field almost all the day long. Therefore it was easier for our children to stay at home with their grandmother, so thate we could work at the field all day.

When I was expecting my fifth baby, we attended an integrated health post session to learn about exclusive breastfeeding.

Staff of Wahana Visi Indonesia and the village midwife shared information about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding.

So I tried it myself.

I concluded that it was not too difficult to exclusively breastfeed. I even noticed a difference between Love and her brother and sisters. I notice that Love is healthier, is rarely sick, and is more active if compared to his brother and his sisters. Her weight is also increasing well every month.

My success in exclusively breastfeeding cannot be separated from my husband's support. He fully supports my decision. I didn't return to working in the fields until Love reached 6 months.

There were a few challenges. Sometimes mothers negatively commented about my decision. One mother said, "Why do you listen what the village midwife and Wahana Visi staff say. It's a pity that your baby for not getting solid food earlier."

But I know the truth, and tell her that Love is healthier and happier with exclusive breastfeeding.

*Written by Yohana Damayanti Manao, staff of Wahana Visi Indonesia at Nias operational office