Communication Backgrounder for World Breastfeeding Week 2013 Overview Breastfeeding plays a critical role in reducing child mortality. It is essential in protecting against infectious diseases, provides essential nutrients during the first two years of a child’s life, and helps prevent stunting, a form of chronic malnutrition that affects 165 million children globally. Breastfeeding also reduces the risk of long-term conditions such as obesity. Studies also show that breastfeeding promotes cognitive development, thus helping children learn better and become productive adults. World Breastfeeding Week is an annual celebration marked from 1-7 August that highlights this essential practice. This year it is built around the theme of Breastfeeding Support for Mothers. More mothers breastfeed when they receive support, counselling and education in health centres and in their communities The following key messages support communication efforts by UNICEF and the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) and are aligned with the communication objectives of ‘A Promise Renewed’ and the ‘Scaling Up Nutrition’ movement, and with UNICEF’s work on child survival and nutrition within the post-2015 agenda.
Key Messages on Breastfeeding Breastfeeding – a baby’s ‘first immunization’ – is the most effective and least costly life-saver the world has ever known. • • • • • • •
Children who are exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life are 14 times more likely to survive than non-breastfed children.1 More than 800,000 child deaths are linked to poor breastfeeding practices every year.2 Globally, more than half of newborns are not breastfed within the first hour of life. Studies show that initiating breastfeeding immediately after birth can reduce the risk of newborn death by up to 20 per cent, by boosting the child’s immune system.3 A breastfed child is less prone to illness, less of a drain on health care systems, and less likely to require parents to miss work because of the child’s illness. Worldwide, only 39 per cent of children under six months old are exclusively breastfed;4 this number has improved very little in recent decades. The 2013 Lancet Nutrition Series reiterated the advantages of breastfeeding, which have been repeatedly demonstrated through research.
1 ‘A Promise Renewed’ Report 2012, page 21 2 The Lancet, ‘Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income countries’ May 2013, http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)60937-X/fulltext
3 APR 2012, page 21 4 Ibid