In a joint statement commemorating World Breastfeeding Week, the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) emphasised the value of breastfeeding and said that numerous global crises have put millions of infants and children’s health and nutrition at risk.
In a statement, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said that the fundamental importance of nursing as the best start in life is more critical than ever, as worldwide crises continue to jeopardise the health and nutrition of millions of infants and children. She urged governments to increase funding for policies and programmes that protect, promote, and support breastfeeding, particularly for the most vulnerable families living in emergency situations. The theme of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week is Step up for breastfeeding: Educate and Support.
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According to the WHO, one of the best ways to assure a child’s health and survival is to breastfeed them. However, the incidence of newborns who are not exclusively breastfed for the advised six months has not decreased over the past twenty years and is close to two out of three. The global health organisation emphasised that attempts to increase breastfeeding rates and duration globally are still being undermined by inappropriate marketing of breast-milk substitutes.
Breastfeeding also serves as a child’s first vaccination against common childhood diseases. But in emergency situations, mothers often face mental distress, physical tiredness, a lack of privacy and space, and poor cleanliness, which prevents many babies from receiving the survival-enhancing benefits of nursing. In the first hour of life, less than half of all newborn newborns are nursed, making them more susceptible to illness and death. In addition, just 44% of newborns are exclusively breastfed in the first six months of life, falling short of the World Health Assembly’s goal of 50% by 2025, according to a statement made on Tuesday by WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
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In the meantime, the UN agencies urged governments, donors, civil society, and the corporate sector to step up efforts to prioritise funding for policies and programmes that support breastfeeding. The International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes, including in humanitarian circumstances, must be fully adopted and implemented in order to properly protect caregivers and medical professionals from the formula industry’s unethical marketing influence. If every child ages 0 to 23 months had the best possible breastfeeding care, the WHO estimates that over 8,20,000 children’s lives may be spared annually among children under the age of 5.
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