Breast is best because it nurtures most lives after all.

That’s Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Dr Byron Fatiaki’s sentiments during Lautoka Hospital’s Pinktober celebration recently.

“In our antenatal booking, and gynae clinics, this is an opportune time to feel for lumps and refer to our surgical colleagues,” he said.

“Much like our cervical screening, breast screening is opportunistic.

“During the postpartum period again we advocate in all our hospitals under the breastfeeding health initiative that breast is best.

“Currently, Fiji’s life expectancy for women according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) data published in 2020, is 70.3 years on average, quite lower than our developed neighbors, a challenge we accept.”

He said the problem of having breast cancer ranked as fifth in Fiji’s causes of death, needed to be addressed. Dr Fatiaki said there needed to be an investment in cultural competency training to meet the needs of those with cultural barriers and limited language proficiency.

Feedback: nicolette.chambers@fijisun.com.fj