LAHORE:Global Breastfeeding Week starts tomorrow with a theme to enable breastfeeding by making a difference for working parents.
The Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department has arranged programmes to celebrate the week by organizing various events, including discussions at various hospitals, a provincial launch and advocacy seminar at a local hotel on Aug 28 to discuss the current status of breastfeeding legislation in Punjab and policies for enabling environment for working mothers.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in its report on Pakistan, has expressed its gratitude regarding the increasing number of newborns that are enjoying the benefits of breastfeeding, however, it is not yet time for celebration as less than one in two children are adequately breastfed in the country.
“The UNICEF would continue working with partners and the government of Pakistan to further accelerate progress to ensure that every child has the best start in life, a very first step for realizing the child’s rights to full growth and development,” the report said.
According to the latest National Nutrition Survey (2018), proportion of children put to breast within one hour after delivery increased from 40 percent in 2011 to 45.8 percent in 2018. Likewise, practice of exclusive breastfeeding has increased from 37.7 percent in 2011 to 48.4 percent in 2018.
These national averages hide provincial and inter-districts variations. Early initiation of breastfeeding is as high as 61.1 percent in KP while only 20.1percent of newborns in GB are given breast milk during the first hour after birth.
The practice of exclusive breastfeeding in above 50 percent in Sindh, KP and GB provinces and ranges between 42 and 44 percent in Punjab, Balochistan and AJK, it added.
It is worth mentioning here that the UNICEF has contributed to the progress by working with the government at the federal and provincial level by promoting infant and young child feeding in general and optimal breastfeeding through support of mass media campaigns to spread awareness about breastfeeding, by working with the government to creating an enabling environment for promotion and protection of breastfeeding and strengthen government capacity to enforce existing legislation.
In addition, the UNICEF support community-based promotion of breastfeeding through a network of Lady Health Workers, visitors mother-to-mother support groups and fathers’ support groups.