Fri 02 August 2019:
While the benefits of breastfeeding for both children and mothers are extensive, policies that support nursing, particularly in workplaces, are not yet available to most mothers worldwide, the Head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.
“The health, social and economic benefits of breastfeeding – for mother and child – are well-established and accepted throughout the world”, according to UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “Yet, nearly 60 per cent of the world’s infants are missing out on the recommended six months of exclusive breastfeeding”.
It’s World Breastfeeding Week! ?
We’re calling for family-friendly policies that support mothers with time, space and support to breastfeed. Are you with us?#EarlyMomentsMatter #WBW2019 pic.twitter.com/tTyz3GePdm
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) August 1, 2019
From supporting healthy brain development in babies and young children, protecting infants against infection, decreasing the risk of obesity and disease, reducing healthcare costs and protecting nursing mothers against ovarian cancer and breast cancer, the benefits are widespread.
“We need far greater investment in paid parental leave and breastfeeding support across all workplaces to increase breastfeeding rates globally”, Ms. Fore underscored.
Kicking off World Breastfeeding Week
From 1 to 7 August each year, World Breastfeeding Week highlights the critical importance of nursing for children across the globe. This year, the commemoration is accompanied by a fact sheet with new data from the 2019 Global Breastfeeding Scorecard, which revealed, among other things, that only four out of 10 babies in 2018 were exclusively breastfed.
Babies in rural areas were breastfed more than for their urban counterparts and at 23.9 per cent, upper-middle-income countries had the lowest breastfeeding rates.
Breastfeeding at work
UNICEF recommends regular lactation breaks during working hours to accommodate breastfeeding or expressing breastmilk, along with a supportive environment, which includes facilities that enable mothers to continue breastfeeding for six months, followed by age-appropriate complementary breastfeeding.
However, working women lack adequate support.
Worldwide, only 40 per cent of women with newborns have basic maternity benefits at their workplace. And in some African countries, only 15 per cent of mothers with newborns have any benefits at all to support continued breastfeeding.
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