As World Breastfeeding
Week commences today, the World Health Organisation and United Nations Children’s
Fund say about 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.
A
release from the WHO, quoting a
new report, notes that “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.
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.”
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