First week of August is globally marked as World Breastfeeding Week, the theme of this year World Breastfeeding Week is ‘Breastfeeding: Foundation for life’.
In spite of all the progress globally 3 in 5 babies not breastfed in the first hour of life says new report by UNICEF and WHO.
Breastfeeding within an hour after birth is critical for saving newborn lives. The report notes that newborns who breastfeed in the first hour of life are significantly more likely to survive. Even a delay of 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 referred as the baby’s ‘first vaccine’, is extremely rich in nutrients and antibodies and is an essential ingredient for the survival, growth and neurodevelopment of a child.
Although nutrition rates are showing improvement across the globe, only 34.5 per cent of the children in Madhya Pradesh receive breastfeeding within one hour of birth and 58.2 per cent children receive exclusive breastfeeding for first six months of life.
Early initiation of breastfeeding alone has a potential of preventing 22 per cent of the new-born deaths, which means we can potentially prevent an estimated 18200 deaths of new-borns by scaling up early initiation of breastfeeding in MP. This risk of mortality increases as it gets delayed with 33 per cent risk of mortality for delay up to 24 hours, says Michael Juma, Chief UNICEF Madhya Pradesh.
Breast milk acts as the first vaccine for the child and provides all the immunological protection from diseases like diarrhoea, pneumonia, ear infections and other childhood illnesses.
Breastmilk has all the nutrients to take care of baby’s growth in the first six months. It promotes optimum growth at the beginning of life and thus prevents under-nutrition or obesity in the future. So it is stepping stone to healthier future.