Browsing and breastfeeding. Credit: Pinot Dita from Flickr.
Breastmilk is the optimal nutrition for an infant in the first 6 months of life. It promotes healthy child development and growth and prevents diseases in adulthood. Especially in resource-poor settings in which formula feeding is not affordable, feasible or sustainable, breastfeeding is often the only option to ensure child survival and health.
A recent Lancet paper recommends breastfeeding promotion as one of the 10 evidence-based core interventions to address child undernutrition. Increasing breastfeeding rates is on the agenda of more and more Ministries of Health and Family Welfare, international agencies and non-governmental organisations that work on improving child health. At community-level, lactation counsellors and breastfeeding peer support groups have become a common feature in many places. Since 1991, the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, a global network of organisations and individuals, has been organising the annual World Breastfeeding Week to raise international awareness, from 1-7th August.
