World Breastfeeding Week was observed from August 1–7 under the theme, ‘Sustaining Breastfeeding Together’. It provided yet another opportunity for the various stakeholders in the health sector to remind everyone of the many health benefits that can be obtained when couples go the route of ensuring their babies are breastfed.
The evidence shows that breastfeeding has cognitive and health benefits for both infants and their mothers. It is especially critical during the first six months of life, helping prevent diarrhoea and pneumonia – two major causes of death in infants. Also, mothers who breastfeed have a reduced risk of ovarian and breast cancer; two leading causes of death among women.
In fact, UNICEF, the World Health Organisation and scientists across the world have promoted breastfeeding as the foundation of good nutrition and a platform to protect children against diseases. However, inspite of all of the known facts about breastfeeding, countries, including Guyana, are still lagging behind as a huge percentage of newborns are not being breastfed.
According to a new report by UNICEF and the WHO in collaboration with ‘The Global Breastfeeding Collective’, no country in the world fully meets recommended standards for breastfeeding. The ‘Global Breastfeeding Scorecard’, which evaluated 194 nations, found that only 40 per cent of children younger than six months are breastfed exclusively and only 23 countries have exclusive breastfeeding rates above 60 per cent.
The 23 countries that have achieved exclusive breastfeeding rates above 60 per cent are: Bolivia, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Eritrea, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Micronesia, Federated States of Nauru, Nepal, Peru, Rwanda, São Tome and Principe, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Timor-Leste, Uganda, Vanuatu, and Zambia.
According to the WHO, globally, investment in breastfeeding is far too low. It says that each year, governments in lower- and middle-income countries spend approximately US$250 million on breastfeeding promotions; and donors provide only an additional US$85 million. The scorecard was released at the start of World Breastfeeding Week alongside a new analysis demonstrating that an annual investment of only US$4.70 per newborn is required to increase the global rate of exclusive breastfeeding among children under six months to 50 per cent by 2025. ‘Nurturing the Health and Wealth of Nations: The Investment Case for Breastfeeding’, suggests that meeting this target could save the lives of 520,000 children under the age of five and potentially generate US$300 billion in economic gains over 10 years, as a result of reduced illness and healthcare costs and increased productivity.
In Guyana’s case, the breastfeeding rate for newborn babies is now approximately 23 per cent. This is enough to cause the authorities to review national policies and revise and strengthen the present approaches in relation to the national breastfeeding campaign. There is an urgent need for a consistent, aggressive breastfeeding campaign aimed at persuading mothers and fathers that early and exclusive breastfeeding helps children survive, supports healthy brain development, improves cognitive performance and is a major factor in better educational achievement at age five. Even if there is such a campaign at the moment, it is very limited and done in an inconsistent manner.
That said, ‘The Global Breastfeeding Collective’ is calling on countries to: increase funding to raise breastfeeding rates from birth through two years, fully implement the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and relevant World Health Assembly resolutions through strong legal measures that are enforced and independently monitored by organisations free from conflicts of interest, enact paid family leave and workplace breastfeeding policies, building on the International Labour Organisation’s maternity protection guidelines as a minimum requirement, including provisions for the informal sector, implement the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding in maternity facilities, including providing breast-milk for sick and vulnerable newborns, improve access to skilled breastfeeding counselling as part of comprehensive breastfeeding policies and programmes in health facilities, strengthen links between health facilities and communities, and encourage community networks that protect, promote, and support breastfeeding and strengthen monitoring systems that track the progress of policies, programmes, and funding towards achieving both national and global breastfeeding targets.
These are all useful recommendations which countries such as Guyana should take seriously by working diligently towards ensuring they become a reality.
