This Week is "World Breastfeeding Week!"

Towards A Baby-Friendly World

From 1-7 August 2010, the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), and breastfeeding advocates in more than 170 countries worldwide will be celebrating World Breastfeeding Week for the 19th year with the theme “Breastfeeding: Just 10 steps. The Baby-Friendly Way”.

Research shows that the best feeding option globally is the initiation of breastfeeding within the first half hour of life, exclusive  breastfeeding for a full six months and continued breastfeeding through the second year or beyond. Breastfeeding improves short and long term maternal and child health; and thus contribute to the attainment of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) 4: REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY and 5 IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH, to which many countries and agencies are committed.

UNICEF recently noted that the reduction of child deaths from 13 million globally in 1990 to 8.8 million in 2008(1) is partly due to the adoption of basic health interventions such as early and exclusive breastfeeding. 

More and more studies have shown that implementation of the Ten Steps with continued postnatal support contributes to increased breastfeeding initiation and exclusive breastfeeding at the local, national and global levels. 2,3,4

Today, an estimated 28% of all maternity facilities in the world have at some point implemented the Ten Steps which has contributed to an encouraging increase in breastfeeding rates despite aggressive commercial promotion of infant formula and  feeding bottles.  However this is a far cry from the original goal of ALL maternity facilities practising the Ten Steps by 1995 as stated in the Innocenti Declaration (1990) on the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding which had outlined what countries should do to support breastfeeding.

Read more about World Breastfeeding Week or visit their website www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org