Call for improving breastfeeding practices

Islamabad : There is a need for improving breastfeeding practices to save the life of more than 820,000 children every year globally.

This was the crux of the speeches delivered during an event marking the culmination of the World Breastfeeding Week 2018 at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts here on Wednesday.

The week was organised by UNICEF and the health services ministry.

The seminar attended by health services secretary Zahid Saeed, PIMS gynecologist Prof Batool Mazhar, country representative of UNICEF Aida Girma, Dr. Mohammad Assai of the WHO and Dr Baseer Khan Achakzai of the ministry's Nutrition Wing.

The experts said breastfeeding had profound benefits for infants that extended beyond childhood, numerous benefits for mothers and benefits for the family.

They said beyond these well-documented positive aspects for long-term health and wellbeing, breastfeeding had a beneficial impact on the workplace, the health care system and largely on society.

The experts said investing in breastfeeding reduced the annual health care costs and increases productivity associated with higher intelligence.

They said research showed that an estimated 22% of newborn deaths could be prevented if breastfeeding is started within the first hour after birth and 16% if it’s started in the first 24 hours.

According to them, it is also important to note that infants who are not breastfed are 15 times more likely to die from pneumonia and 11 times more likely to die from diarrhea than those who are exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life.

Outdated practices that separate mothers and babies after birth, rising rates of over-medicalized institutional deliveries, unnecessary cesarean sections, misleading information by health professionals, and aggressive marketing by the infant formula industry are the main challenges and hindrance in improvement in the breastfeeding practices.

Today, the realization in the world is more elaborate after so many studies conducted on the benefits of breast feeding and the Lancet series which not only focuses on breastfeeding and stresses upon the need to improve exclusive breastfeeding in both low-income and high-income countries to promote child survival and wellbeing.

The World Health Assembly under UN set targets to improve breastfeeding in 69th World Health Assembly in 1981 and Government of Pakistan has also committed to adhere to these global targets.

The government and health ministry are cognizant of the fact and the need thereof in this respect. In 2002 necessary legislation for protection and promotion of breast feeding was made through “The protection of breast-feeding and child nutrition ordinance, 2002” and in 2009 the breast-feeding rules were also formulated and endorsed by the Health Ministry. However, enforcement of these rules remains a challenge.

Ms. Aida Girma reiterated UNICEF ‘commitment to the Govt of Pakistan to work with governments to target critical nutrition activities such as improving breastfeeding rates.

Legislation regarding Child nutrition and protection of breast milk benefits and implementation of these laws at provincial level should be the priority. Our Exclusive BF is only 38% that's why we are 44% stunted children which may leads to loss of 2-3% GDP. Also, our IQ level of children are compromised reluctantly our economic generation force would be diminished in a decade.