World Breastfeeding Week is
celebrated every year from 1 to 7 August to encourage breastfeeding and improve
the health of babies around the world. This year this week will celebrated with
the slogan of BREASTFEEDING:
Foundation of Life.
It
commemorates the Innocenti Declaration signed in August 1990 by government
policymakers, WHO, UNICEF and other organizations to protect, promote and
support breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding
is the best way to provide infants with the nutrients they need. WHO recommends
exclusive breastfeeding starting within one hour after birth until a baby is 6
months old. Nutritious complementary foods should then be added while
continuing to breastfeed for up to 2 years or beyond.
This
year, WHO is working with UNICEF and partners to promote the importance of
helping mothers breastfeed their babies within that crucial first hour of life.
Skin-to-skin contact along with suckling at the breast
stimulate the production of breast milk,
including colostrum, also called the baby’s ‘first vaccine’, which is extremely
rich in nutrients and antibodies.
An estimated 78 million babies –
or three in five – are not breastfed within the first hour of life, putting
them at higher risk of death and disease and making them less likely to continue
breastfeeding, say UNICEF and WHO in a new report. Most of these babies
are born in low- and middle-income countries.
The report notes that newborns
who breastfeed in the first hour of life are significantly more likely to
survive. Even a delay of a few hours after birth could pose life-threatening
consequences. Skin-to-skin contact along with suckling at the breast stimulate
the mother’s production of breastmilk, including colostrum, also called the
baby’s ‘first vaccine’, which is extremely rich in nutrients and antibodies.
“When it comes to the start of
breastfeeding, timing is everything. In many countries, it can even be a matter
of life or death,” says Henrietta H. Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “Yet each
year, millions of newborns miss out on the benefits of early breastfeeding and
the reasons – all too often – are things we can change. Mothers simply don’t
receive enough support to breastfeed within those crucial minutes after birth,
even from medical personnel at health facilities.”
Breastfeeding rates within the
first hour after birth are highest in Eastern and Southern Africa (65%) and
lowest in East Asia and the Pacific (32%), the report says. Nearly 9 in 10
babies born in Burundi, Sri Lanka and Vanuatu are breastfed within the first
hour. By contrast, only two in 10 babies born in Azerbaijan, Chad and
Montenegro do so.
“Breastfeeding gives children the
best possible start in life,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO
Director-General. “We must urgently scale up support to mothers – be it from
family members, health care workers, employers and governments, so they can
give their children the start they deserve.”
Capture the Moment, which
analyzes data from 76 countries, finds that despite the importance of
early initiation of breastfeeding, too many newborns are left waiting too long
for different reasons, including:
·
Feeding newborns food or drinks, including
formula: Common practices, such as discarding colostrum, an elder
feeding the baby honey or health professionals giving the newborn a specific
liquid, such as sugar water or infant formula, delay a newborn’s first critical
contact with his or her mother.
·
The rise in elective C-sections: In
Egypt, caesarean section rates more than doubled between 2005 and 2014,
increasing from 20% to 52%. During the same period, rates of early initiation
of breastfeeding decreased from 40% to 27%. A study across 51 countries notes
that early initiation rates are significantly lower among newborns delivered by
caesarean section. In Egypt, only 19% of babies born by C-section were
breastfed in the first hour after birth, compared to 39% of babies born by
natural delivery.
·
Gaps in the quality of care provided to
mothers and newborns: The presence of a skilled birth attendant does
not seem to affect rates of early breastfeeding, according to the report.
Across 58 countries between 2005 and 2017, deliveries at health institutions
grew by 18 percentage points, while early initiation rates increased by 6
percentage points. In many cases, babies are separated from their mothers
immediately after birth and guidance from health workers is limited. In Serbia,
the rates increased by 43 percentage points from 2010 to 2014 due to efforts to
improve the care mothers received at birth.
Earlier studies, cited in the
report, show that newborns who began breastfeeding between two and 23 hours
after birth had a 33% greater risk of dying compared with those who began
breastfeeding within one hour of birth. Among newborns who started
breastfeeding a day or more after birth, the risk was more than twice as high.
