UNICEF and partners celebrate 15th anniversary of breastfeeding declaration

Celebrating the 15th anniversary of a landmark declaration promoting breastfeeding, the United Nations agencies most directly concerned with child survival listed such gains as six million infants’ lives saved per year, global breastfeeding rates up 15 per cent and thousands of hospitals in 150 countries now “baby-friendly.”

The data come in a new report on the Innocenti Declaration on the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding, which was adopted at a UNICEF/ UN World Health Organization (WHO) meeting at the Spedale degli Innocenti in Florence, Italy.

At the celebratory meeting in Florence, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Anne Veneman said: “Breastfeeding is considered to be a child’s first immunization. It’s critical to efforts to combat hunger and promote child survival, as well as progress towards the Millennium Development Goal to reduce child mortality by 2015.”

Praising the dedication of breastfeeding advocates, who worked tirelessly to turn the pledges of the Innocenti Declaration and the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative into action, she said: “Exclusive breastfeeding is one of the most powerful tools we have to combat child hunger and death.”

Breast milk provides complete nourishment for infants, boosting their immune systems and protecting them from such deadly diseases as diarrhoea and pneumonia. Exclusive breastfeeding also minimizes an infant’s exposure to potentially unsafe food or water, UNICEF said.

One of the Declaration’s targets says all governments should have appointed a national breastfeeding coordinator of appropriate authority by 1995, established a multisectoral national breastfeeding committee, with representatives from relevant government departments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and health professional associations.

Through the efforts of UNICEF, WHO and their partners, nearly 20,000 hospitals in 150 countries have become “baby-friendly,” more than 60 countries have laws or regulations implementing the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, and many countries have some form of national breastfeeding authority.

But the Innocenti partners warned that only 39 per cent of infants in developing countries are exclusively breastfed. Lack of awareness among many mothers and shortcomings in support from their communities and health workers are largely to blame, they said.