Millions of children die before fifth birthday

Aug 01, 2011 News

World Breastfeeding Week….

– raising awareness beyond the confines of the Maternity Ward is critical

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from August 1-7 in more than 120 countries, including Guyana.
According to World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), every year, nearly 9 million children die before their fifth birthday. Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to reduce that toll.
During World Breastfeeding Week, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) joins global partners in calling for the benefits of breastfeeding to be broadcasted beyond clinics and delivery rooms to the public at large, ensuring that young people both in the developing world and in wealthier countries understand the importance of breastfeeding long before they become parents.
Breastfeeding is directly linked to reducing the death toll of children under five, yet only 36 per cent of infants under six months old in developing countries are exclusively breastfed.
“With so much at stake, we need to do more to reach women with a simple, powerful message: Breastfeeding can save your baby’s life,” said Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director. “No other preventive intervention is more cost effective in reducing the number of children who die before reaching their fifth birthday.”
The powerful benefits of breastfeeding for child survival, growth and development are well known. Scientific evidence has shown that breastfeeding could lead to a 13 per cent reduction in deaths of children under five if infants were exclusively breastfed for six months and continue to breastfeed up to one year.
Breastfeeding also plays an important role in preventing stunting (low height for age), a condition that can cause irreversible physical and cognitive damage, and which is viewed as a key indicator reflecting inequities in society. Given its critical importance, UNICEF firmly supports all efforts to accelerate comprehensive efforts to improve breastfeeding rates globally, in every country and with a particular focus on reaching the most disadvantaged and hard to reach populations.
“Breastfed is best fed, whether the baby is born in Uganda or England, China or Canada,” said Lake.
Women generally have received information about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding when they go for antenatal care visits, or after they deliver their babies. That is why community health networks should have staff that not only possess updated knowledge and skills to support mothers to start breastfeeding, but also offer guidance and clarification on how to sustain exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and to continue to breastfeed until two years or beyond.
Yet, while breastfeeding rates in the developing world are on the rise in two-thirds of countries with trend data, millions of infants are not benefiting from this life-saving practice.
It is clear that a broader audience of advocates needs to be cultivated using new and creative ways to communicate with mothers and families. Raising awareness beyond the confines of the Maternity Ward is critical to reach these broader audiences, including children and young people.
UNICEF embraces the idea of using all possible means of communication and encourages others to do the same, using the opportunity of World Breastfeeding Week to trigger action the whole year round.
This year’s celebration emphasizes the role that every member of society can play to raise awareness about breastfeeding – a natural and nurturing start to life for infants and mothers. It also emphasizes that communication on breastfeeding should take advantage of non-traditional and newer communication tools such as social networking, blogs, mobile phone technology, the arts and flash mobs.