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This year's Theme:
"Breastfeeding in the 1st hour,
early initiation and exclusive breast-feeding
can save more than
ONE MILLION BABIES"
offers an excellent opportunity
to draw global attention to the important role that
breast-feeding plays in improving the health of infants.
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Recently there has been some good news on rates of breastfeeding. An examination of
37 countries (covering some 60 per cent of the developing world
population) has revealed an increase from 34 per cent to 41 percent
in the rates of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of
children's lives. However some studies suggest an additional 1.3 million
children would be saved if this rate were increased to 90 per cent, and
that neonatal mortality is reduced by 22% when children are breastfed within an hour of birth.
The challenge we face is to find creative
and convincing ways at the community level to encourage breastfeeding and to
provide national authorities with solid evidence of the advantages of promoting
breastfeeding at the national level.
World Breastfeeding Week also provides us
with an opportunity to inform people of the benefits that early and
exclusive breastfeeding provides to both families and nations. If we are
successful, we will have saved lives thereby contributing to progress towards
the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG-4)
aims at reducing under-five child mortality by two thirds by 2015. According
to global data, out of all 10.9 million under-five deaths,roughly 4 million
babies die during the first month of life. This means that deaths will have
to be brought down considerably within the first month to make a significant
dent on the child mortality rates.
A recent study has shown that if ALL
women began breastfeeding within the 1st hour it would save ONE million
of the 4 million newborn deaths. This study from rural Ghana, based on
10,947 breastfed singleton infants, has shown that initiation of breastfeeding
within the 1st hour of birth reduced the infants’ risk of death1.
On the other hand, there was a marked increase in risk with increasing
delay in initiation. Overall late initiation (after day ONE) was associated
with a 2.4-fold increase in risk. Giving pre-lacteal feeds, i.e. something
other than mother’s milk before beginning to breastfeed also increased the
risk of neonatal mortality. The study conducted on babies who survived day ONE,
clearly showed that 41% of all babies who die during 2 to 28 days of life can be
saved by this simple intervention: beginning breastfeeding within ONE hour of birth.
When the deaths of day ONE were included, it showed 22% of all neonatal (0-28 days)
deaths could be reduced.
In India, for example, this means 250,000
neonates can be saved from death annually by just this ONE act. Initiation
of breastfeeding within the first hour of birth is thus, the first and most
vital step towards reducing infant and under-five mortality.
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