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World Breastfeeding Week commences

Aug 03, 2010 News

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from August 1-7 in more than 120 countries, including Guyana, to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies. It commemorates the Innocent Declaration made by World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) policy-makers in August 1990, to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.
Under the theme,“Just 10 Steps! Breastfeeding the Baby-friendly way”, the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) announced the occasion.
According to WABA, every year, nearly 9 million children die before their fifth birthday. Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to reduce that toll.
UNICEF is working with the WABA and the World Health Organization to educate policy-makers, donors, partners, health-care workers and the public about the benefits of breastfeeding.
“Breastmilk is the best food a baby can have and breastfeeding gives a child the best possible start in life,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.
According to UNICEF, the 10 steps outlined by the project have been implemented in more than quarter of all hospitals worldwide that deliver babies. Experience has shown that the steps make mothers more confident and more likely to exclusively breastfeed their children in the first six months.
“It’s a relatively straightforward and very exciting intervention which we strongly feel that all facilities that deliver babies or even interact with babies after they’ve been born, should be undertaking,” said UNICEF Chief of Health Dr. Mickey Chopra.
While early initiation of breastfeeding contributes to reducing overall neonatal mortality by around 20 per cent, the vast majority of mothers do not exclusively breastfeed their children. However, a number of countries have shown that this can be changed quickly, even in the most challenging circumstances.
And while influencing the attitudes of mothers is the ultimate goal, health-care workers play an important role in the 10-step project. “Health workers have a profound and very important influence on what mothers decide about how to feed their children,” said Dr. Chopra. “And therefore educating and changing the behaviours of health workers is very important.”

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