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ebriana Siregar was one of dozens of moms who came together at the Health Ministry on the weekend. Carrying her 3-month-old daughter, the new mother wanted to hear more about something that she had previously known nothing about: breastfeeding.

Febriana said that as both her mother and older sister lived in Medan, North Sumatra, she had no one to look to as a new parent. For her, the seminar, a ministry program to raise awareness about the importance of breastfeeding, was one small step in her journey to learn about parenthood.

Having initially experienced difficulties breastfeeding her child, she said she had almost given up and switched to infant formula. However, sharing her experience with those with a similar condition has convinced her to continue breastfeeding.

“It’s true when people tell you being a new mom is pretty challenging, and it gets harder if you live far away from your parents,” she told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the “Breastfeeding is a Relationship” seminar that was held to coincide with World Breastfeeding Week.

During the event, Health Ministry public nutrition director Doddy Izwardy emphasized that besides protecting babies from diseases, breastfeeding could also reduce a mother’s risk of breast cancer by 30 percent.

Doddy acknowledged that for some people breastfeeding might be a challenging task as some mothers faced difficulties in the early stages of breastfeeding, with some mothers’ breast milk not flowing after giving birth.

He said skin contact between a mother and her newborn minutes after birth would help ensure that a mother could successfully breastfeed her child.

 “If every mother breastfed their children optimally, the rate of infant death by diarrhea and pneumonia could be reduced by 50 percent,” he said.

He added that husbands played a major role in ensuring that babies were breastfed by encouraging new mothers to exclusively breastfeed their babies for at least six months rather than feed them instant formula.

Based on UNICEF data, 96 percent of Indonesian children under age 2 are “sometimes breastfed”. Unfortunately, only sometimes breastfeeding children in their first two years does not meet the nutritional needs of a young child for optimal development.

Among those 96 percent, only 42 percent exclusively breastfed their children, 55 percent were still given breast milk for two years, and only 37 percent received sufficient nutrition.

“We need to raise more awareness among the public that breastfeeding is a very important part of a child’s development,” Doddy said.

“However, I acknowledge that we are still in the learning process about this issue.”

Adinda Melodi Bestari, a mother of three who got married at a relatively young age, said she had made sure that all of her children — two boys and one girl — were breastfed as soon as she learned that it could protect them from many diseases.

The 28-year-old said despite the fact that many mothers had turned to formulated milk, she believed nothing was as good as breast milk.

As her children grow up in a healthy condition, Adinda credits her friend who is also a breastfeeding activist for showing her what was best for her children.

“A lot of campaigns on this particular issue also helped me to make the right choices, I know many mothers will also take a similar path,” she said.