Of over 79 per cent of women who deliver in health institutions in India, more than half of them, 41 per cent, breastfeed within the first hour, UNICEF said on Thursday on Mother’s Day.
On the occasion, the UN body released a new analysis on the number of babies missing out on breastfeeding which found that approximately 7.6 million babies each year were not breastfed globally.
The analysis noted that babies were much more likely to be breastfed at least once in low- and-middle-income countries like Bhutan (99 per cent), Madagascar (99 per cent) and Peru (99 per cent) than those born in Ireland (55 per cent), the US (74 per cent) or Spain (77 per cent).
According to the Unicef, 95 per cent children in India at some point were breast fed in their early years.
“The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data indicates that 54.9 per cent children are exclusively breastfed and exclusive breastfeeding is on an average for 2.9 months. Use of water and other fluids is one the main reasons for discontinuation of exclusive breastfeeding,” a Unicef statement said.
“However, within low-and-middle-income countries, wealth disparities affect how long a mother will continue to breastfeed her child. Babies from the poorest families have rates for breastfeeding at 2 years that are 1.5 times higher than those from the richest families,” it added.
The US alone accounts for more than one-third of the 2.6 million babies in high-income countries who were never breastfed.
The gaps are widest in West and Central Africa, latin America and the Caribbean, where babies from the poorest families have breastfeeding rates at two years that are nearly double those from wealthier families, said the UN body.
However, the UN agency praised countries like India and Vietnam for putting in place strong policies to protect and promote breastfeeding. Others like Turkmenistan have very high rates of mothers giving birth in baby-friendly hospitals.
Almost all mothers in New Zealand and Sri lanka give birth at a baby-friendly facility. Additionally, cultural and political contexts, including support from fathers, families, employers and communities, play a decisive role, said the UNICEF.
It has called for Increase in funding and awareness to raise breastfeeding rates from birth through the age of two as well enact paid family leave and put in place workplace breastfeeding policies, including paid breastfeeding breaks.