UNICEF welcomes new studies linking good nutrition in first five years of life to reduced risk of heart disease

NEW YORK/GENEVA, 24 September 2004 – Healthy hearts begin in childhood, according to new studies linking good nutrition for children under the age of five to reduced risk of heart disease later in life.

As the world prepares to celebrate World Heart Day on 26 September, recent research is indicating that early infant feeding, especially exclusive and continued breastfeeding, is associated with less obesity and reduction in other heart risk factors throughout childhood and into adulthood.

World Heart Day is sponsored by the World Heart Federation and its member societies in over 100 countries.

“These studies provides evidence to support the critical link between giving children the best nutritional start in life and seeing them thrive as healthy adults”, says Dr. Miriam Labbok, Senior Advisor, Infant and Young Child Feeding and Care at UNICEF. 

The latest research comes from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and a CDC analysis of childhood obesity.  These studies indicate that proper early infant feeding, especially exclusive and continued breastfeeding, is associated with less obesity and reduction in other heart risk factors throughout childhood and into adulthood. 

ALSPAC researchers followed a representative sample of 4000 children over a number of years to assess the impact of breastfeeding on blood pressure, a major contributor to heart disease. The results were startling: after controlling for many possible maternal and child factors, there was a measurable blood pressure reduction for each 3 months of breastfeeding among the children at age 7 years.  In the US and the UK alone, this would amount to a reduction in 10,000 deaths every year.

September 26 marks the fifth celebration of World Heart Day.  This year’s campaign is aimed at children, adolescents and heart disease.  The focus will be on highlighting unhealthy lifestyles, particularly poor eating habits, physical inactivity and smoking.

While children all over the world suffer from the impact of unbalanced diets and lack of exercise, the poorest suffer most.  Lack of exclusive breastfeeding kills more than a million children every year while poor nutrition contributes to more than half of all preventable child deaths. 

Meanwhile, in richer nations, food may be plentiful but not always nourishing.  Poor diets and sedentary lifestyles are making childhood obesity a serious and growing health problem worldwide.

Making sure that children get the best nutritional care during their early years is at the core of UNICEF’s work to help children survive and thrive. UNICEF’s programmes include vitamin and mineral supplementation, support for exclusive and continued breastfeeding with complementary feeding, and educating families about good nutrition. Through the WHO/UNICEF Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, UNICEF continues to stress the urgent need to promote exclusive breastfeeding as fundamental to child survival efforts worldwide.

“All children have the same basic needs: proper infant feeding – exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding with nutrient-rich complementary foods - and diets that are balanced with adequate vitamins and minerals and appropriate exercise,” says Dr. Labbok.  “These factors can protect children against infection, heart disease, diabetes and even certain forms of cancer.  Simply put, good early childhood nutrition saves lives.”

UNICEF applauds the efforts of the World Heart Federation and its members to call attention to these issues, call upon them to increase attention to the importance of breastfeeding, and joins with them in celebrating World Heart Day.

For further information, please contact:

Claire Hajaj, UNICEF New York, +1 212 326 7566, chajaj@unicef.org
Lauren O’Brien, The World Heart Federation, +41 22 908 4074, laureno’brien@ch.cohnwolfe.com

World breastfeeding week starts August 1

NEW YORK, 30 July 2004 – On the eve of World Breastfeeding Week UNICEF said that by expanding the number of women who exclusively breastfeed during their child’s first six months, at least 1.3 million infant lives could be saved this year. UNICEF also called for greater global commitment to protect, and promote breastfeeding. 

Every year more than 10 million children die from mainly preventable causes, including diarrhoea, pneumonia, measles and malaria.  If every baby were exclusively breastfed from birth to six months, an estimated 3,500 children’s lives could be saved each day, UNICEF said.

“Simply put, if a child dies a preventable death it’s because mothers and infants are not getting the basic support they need,” said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy.  “Breastfeeding – the most natural act of mother and newborn – has not been supported for what it is: the key to good health and development for millions of children.” 

Bellamy said every mother who chooses to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months has the right to services and support from their governments, communities and families.

Breastmilk contains all the nutrients, antibodies, hormones, immune factors, and antioxidants that an infant needs to thrive during the first six months of life. Additionally, human milk protects babies from diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections and stimulates their immune systems.

In the first two months of life, an infant who is not exclusively breastfed is up to 25 times more likely to die from diarrhoea and four times more likely to die from pneumonia than a non-breastfed baby. Growth and development may stall and the child stands a greater risk of suffering increased obesity, heart disease, and gastro-intestinal problems in later years.

Yet globally only 39% of babies are being breastfed exclusively in the first 6 months. Advocacy, increasing awareness, and action programmes to support the immense, life-saving benefits of breastfeeding can begin to reverse this. This week, more than 120 countries worldwide will take action to bring attention to this issue by celebrating World Breastfeeding Week 2004 “Exclusive Breastfeeding: The Gold Standard.”

UNICEF supports breastfeeding by working with national governments on policies and action programmes that protect, promote and support breastfeeding, including legislation to protect against commercial bias, health system training and services, and community mobilization.

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For more information, please contact:

Claire Hajaj, UNICEF Media, New York, 212-326-7566, chajaj@unicef.org
Kate Donovan, UNICEF Media, New York, 212-326-7452, kdonovan@unicef.org

UNICEF and WHO call for increased commitment to appropriate feeding practices for all infants and young children

NEW YORK, 23 March 2004 – Calling on governments to promote and protect early and exclusive breastfeeding, UNICEF and WHO today jointly launched the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding. The document, developed over two years of global consultation, pinpoints the main problems affecting infant and young child feeding and identifies approaches to their solution.

“There is no better way than breastfeeding to make sure that a child gets the best start in life,” said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. “The strategy is an invaluable roadmap for governments to create supportive environments where women can make informed choices about feeding their children.”

Breastfeeding alone provides ideal nutrition and health protection for infants for the first six months of life as it provides all the nutrients, antibodies, hormones, immune factors and antioxidants an infant needs to thrive. It protects babies from diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections and stimulates their immune systems.

“Virtually all mothers can breastfeed provided they have accurate information, and support within their families and communities and from the health care system,” said Lee Jong-Wook, Director-General of WHO. “Governments should move swiftly and effectively to implement this important strategy.”

Lack of breastfeeding – and especially lack of exclusive breastfeeding during the first half-year of life – are important risk factors for infant and childhood morbidity and mortality. These risk factors are compounded by inappropriate complementary feeding as infants grow.

“Exclusive breastfeeding in the first half-year of life and continued breastfeeding coupled with appropriate foods could reduce the number of children under five who die from malnutrition,” said Lee Jong-Wook. Malnutrition is associated with more than 50 percent of deaths among children under five.

The strategy calls for a dramatic increase in the number of infants who are exclusively breastfed. Currently, about 39 percent of infants worldwide are exclusively breastfed during the first six months of life. Complementary feeding frequently begins too early or too late, and foods are often nutritionally inadequate and unsafe. Malnourished children who survive are more frequently sick and suffer the life-long consequences of impaired development.

“The long-term impact of poor feeding practices in infancy and early childhood include poor school performance, reduced productivity and impaired intellectual and social development,” Bellamy said.

In addition to stressing the link between the health and nutritional status of mothers and children, the strategy addresses the challenges of feeding in exceptionally difficult cirumstances, such as natural or man-made emergencies.

The strategy also highlights the issue of optimal feeding of the millions of children who are born to HIV-infected women each year.  While about 10-20 percent are born already infected, there is an additional risk of HIV transmission through breastfeeding – estimated to be between 5 percent and 20 percent.  This risk needs to be balanced against the increased risk of morbidity and mortality when infants are not breastfed. All HIV-infected mothers should receive information about the risks and benefits of various options and guidance in choosing the most suitable option.

The Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, now available in six languages, was presented by UN Under Secretary-General for Management Catherine Bertini on March 23 to the Standing Committee on Nutrition session at the UN. It was distributed March 24 during a Working Group session on breastfeeding and complementary feeding and their contribution to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals.

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For further information and to get a copy of the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, please contact:

Randa Saadeh, Nutrition for Health and Development, WHO.  tel (41) 22 7913315

David Porter, Media Officer, Non Communicable Disease and Mental Health, WHO tel (41) 22 7913774, 

Erin Trowbridge, UNICEF Media, New York, Tel: (212) 326-7172,

Kate Donovan, UNICEF Media, New York, Tel: (212) 326-7452

Read about WHO/UNICEF support to breastfeeding and child survival at: www.unicef.org and www.who.int

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, 6 August 2004 – Dr. Tesfanesh Belay, Head of the Department of Family Health for the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), and Bjorn Ljungqvist, UNICEF Representative, held a press conference today affirming the importance of breastfeeding to protect babies against such potential killers as diarrhoea.

“An estimated 1.3 million lives worldwide could be saved each year if every baby was exclusively breastfed from birth to six months,” said Dr. Tesfanesh. “We must promote appropriate breastfeeding for the first six months of life in Ethiopia.”

Ethiopia is one of 120 countries around the world celebrating World Breastfeeding Week this week. The goal is to support infant and young child feeding, by enabling women:

• To choose and succeed in breastfeeding in the early hours after birth and exclusively for six months; 
• To continue breastfeeding with safe, appropriate and adequate complementary food into the second year and beyond.

Breastfeeding reduces mortality by providing optimum nutrition and protection against common, but deadly, childhood infections. Babies who do not breastfeed are two to six times more likely to die from infectious diseases, such as diarrhoea, during their first year. This risk is particularly high during the first two months of life. Breastfeeding also provides the stimulation for good psychosocial and neurological development and contributes to birth spacing.

Even though most mothers in Ethiopia breastfeed their babies, they do not always follow the recommendations of the “National Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding,” the guidelines established by the FMOH for optimum breastfeeding. Many newborns are neither breastfed during their first hours of life with colostrum nor exclusively breastfed during their first six months. Instead, they are given liquids and complementary food at an early age. These practices may expose them to infectious diseases, and therefore have a negative impact on their growth and development. There are several reasons for poor breastfeeding practices in Ethiopia, including traditional and cultural beliefs, low education levels, heavy workload of mothers and poor sanitary conditions and poverty.

For HIV-positive mothers, the decision about whether or not to breastfeed a child can be difficult. Babies who breastfeed from HIV-positive mothers have a 10 to 20 percent chance of becoming infected. However, babies who do not breastfeed are six times more likely to die from diarrhoea or respiratory infections than babies who do breastfeed. Moreover, breastfeeding provides complete nutrition and strengthens a baby’s immune system. 

“For women who are HIV negative or who do not know their HIV status, breastfeeding should be protected, promoted and supported for six months. However, women should have access to HIV testing and counselling. HIV positive mothers should be given the fullest possible information on which they can base their decision,” said Ljungqvist. “It is a mother’s right to decide how she will feed her child. She should receive support in her community and family for the course of action she chooses.”

For HIV-positive mothers who choose to breastfeed, the safest option is to breastfeed exclusively with a good technique. This will minimise the risk of childhood infections such as diarrhoea and reduce the risk of mastitis and nipple damage. Mothers should be told how to recognize early mastitis, crackled nipples, sores and thrush in their baby’s mouth and to seek early treatment and counselling.

Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for six months in any context where mothers can not provide a safe, affordable and sustainable nutritious replacement feeding. The transition period between breastfeeding and replacement feeding should be kept as short as possible. 

“HIV-positive mothers, whatever their feeding option, should have access to information, support, guidance and follow-up care for themselves and their newborn,” said Ljungqvist. “They also should be given the first priority for receiving ARV drugs as the now become available in Ethiopia.”  

For further information, please contact:

Angela Walker, UNICEF Ethiopia, awalker@unicef.org
Addis Ababa: +251-921-3308

Five priority actions being promoted to help all women adopt good infant feeding practices, while giving special support to HIV-positive mothers to make the best feeding choices for themselves and their babies.

NAIROBI, 25 September 2003 – With the achievement of broad consensus on the appropriate ways to feed infants and young children in the context of HIV/AIDS, four UN agencies today urged governments to immediately scale up action in five priority areas to save lives and ensure the growth, health, development and well-being of all children.

UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, UNAIDS and five other agencies are promoting a five-step framework to help reduce child mortality and HIV transmission, while enhancing support for breastfeeding among the general population and promoting achievement of other health-related goals. This approach, which has been widely endorsed among UN agencies and child feeding experts, is intended to help governments, in particular in high HIV-prevalence areas, to rapidly scale-up their infant and child feeding programmes and outreach.

“The HIV and Infant Feeding Framework will help enormously in creating and sustaining environments that encourage appropriate feeding practices for all infants and young children, while scaling-up interventions to reduce transmission of HIV,” said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. “The evidence tells us what we need to do to keep children as healthy as possible in the context of a world with HIV.  We need to make sure we do it.”

The five-step framework aims to significantly help reduce transmission of HIV through breastfeeding, while at the same time drawing attention to actions needed to reduce child mortality caused by poor infant feeding practices by HIV-negative mothers and mothers of unknown HIV-status. It calls for the adoption of a combination of measures that help to reduce the risk of HIV transmission to infants while minimizing the risk of morbidity and mortality caused by other infections. 

“AIDS threatens child survival and welfare,” said Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director. “Good infant feeding practices must be widely promoted to help women, be they HIV-positive or negative, make informed choices to reduce child mortality.”

The Framework outlines five priority areas for national action: 

1. Develop or revise (as appropriate) a comprehensive national infant and young child feeding policy, which includes HIV and infant feeding.

2. Implement and enforce the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and subsequent relevant World Health Assembly resolutions.

3. Intensify efforts to protect, promote and support appropriate infant and young child feeding practices in general, while recognizing HIV as one of a number of exceptionally difficult circumstances.

4. Provide adequate support to HIV-positive women to enable them to select the best feeding option for themselves and their babies, and to successfully carry out their infant feeding decisions.

5. Support research on HIV and infant feeding, including operations research, learning, monitoring and evaluation at all levels, and disseminate findings.
 
The Framework has been developed in response to the need for more clarity on infant feeding in the context of HIV/AIDS. It’s meant to provide guidance to national policy makers, programme managers, regional advisory bodies, public health authorities, UN staff, professional bodies, NGOs and other interested stakeholders, including the community.

UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said “the Framework strives to enable women who are HIV positive to make informed decisions on the best feeding options for their babies. It further challenges policy makers and stakeholders to make this a reality to ensure the means for women to exercise their decisions.”

Dr. Joy Phumaphi, the WHO Assistant Director General for Family and Community Health, said “the Framework is meant to guide policy-makers and other stake-holders in planning and implementing activities.  The aim is ultimately to help mothers to make the most appropriate infant feeding decisions in an HIV-related environment.”

The Framework responds to the issues specific to countries hard-hit by HIV/AIDS.  An estimated 3.2 million children under 15 years were living with HIV in 2002. A total of 800,000 were newly infected and 610,000 had died. The overwhelming source of HIV infection in young children is mother-to-child transmission. About 15-30% of the infections occur during pregnancy or delivery, and about 5-20% through breastfeeding. It is estimated that in countries with an HIV-prevalence above 35% in pregnant women, HIV/AIDS contributes up to 42% of under-five mortality.
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For more information please contact:

Victor Chinyama, UNICEF, +254 722 701 505 (Mobile);
vchinyama@unicef.org; Website: www.unicef.org

Fadela Chaib, WHO, +41 79 475 5556 (Mobile);
chaib@who.int; Website: www.who.int

UNAIDS, Website: www.unaids.org

UNFPA, Website: www.unfpa.org

UNICEF calls for stronger support for exclusive breastfeeding as “most feasible option” to reduce infant HIV and boost child survival

GENEVA/NEW YORK, 8 November 2004 – The world has a major opportunity to reduce the toll of HIV/AIDS on infants by taking action now to scale up support for exclusive breastfeeding, UNICEF said today.

Several new studies have confirmed that exclusive breastfeeding is currently the most feasible way to keep the majority of babies born in HIV endemic countries alive and healthy through infancy.

The HIV virus can be passed on during breastfeeding, and about one third of the 2 million children currently living HIV were infected this way.  But a mother can reduce the risk of passing HIV on to her child by more than half by exclusively breastfeeding, compared with a mother who combines breastfeeding with other foods and liquids – so called “mixed feeding”.

The new studies acknowledge that every HIV-positive woman has the right to an individual evaluation of the best feeding option for her child, including replacing breastfeeding entirely with other forms of nutrition if appropriate.  But only a small proportion of HIV-positive women have access to this kind of support – and over 90 per cent are completely unaware that they even carry the virus.

“In this environment, exclusive breastfeeding is a lifesaving choice for children and the impact will be dramatic if we support it properly,” said Miriam Labbok, UNICEF expert on infant and young child feeding and care.  “Exclusive breastfeeding is one of the most powerful child survival boosters available to us.  And it is a feasible option for the vast majority of HIV women, regardless of their HIV status.”

Breastfeeding arms children with all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients they need to thrive, and passes on vital antibodies to ward off illnesses like pneumonia and diarrhoea.  The protection afforded by exclusive breastfeeding improves survival odds six-fold for a child born into a developing setting.

Current international guidelines on HIV and infant feeding recognise that HIV transmission through breastfeeding can only be eliminated by avoiding breastfeeding altogether.  But they stress that HIV-positive women should only turn to alternative feeding methods when they are shown to be “acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable and safe for the child”. 

This list of criteria can rarely be met in the poor communities that are home to the majority of the world’s HIV-positive women.  As a result, women who are not helped to exclusively breastfeed are likely to resort to mixed feeding, which skyrockets the odds of HIV infection and infant mortality.

“In an ideal world, every woman would know her HIV status, get appropriate counselling and find alternate feeding methods that are safe for her child,” said Ngashi Ngongo, a UNICEF expert on parent-to-child transmission of HIV.  “But in reality, we have to weigh the number of children contracting HIV via exclusive breastfeeding against the number of those dying because they aren’t exclusively breastfed.”
“The issue is very emotive, but the data is incontrovertible:  exclusive breastfeeding will save more lives where safe replacement feeding is not possible, and now we know it’s a feasible choice,” he said

Governments’ ability to support exclusive breastfeeding was confirmed by a recent UNICEF joint study HIV and Infant Feeding: A Compilation of Evidence, developed with the University Research Corporation’s Quality Assurance Project(URC/QAP), which is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  The study concludes that HIV-positive women are more likely to sustain exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months when they receive infant-feeding information, counselling and support through HIV outreach programmes.

But a lack of support for exclusive breastfeeding remains the biggest missing link in the global effort to reduce the number of children becoming infected with HIV.  

“We cannot accept a status quo which allows a large number of women and children to flounder without support when the stakes are so high.” Peggy Kooniz-Booher of URC/QAP. “Thanks to these studies, we have a range of great experience to draw on.  Now the challenge is to learn the lessons and take our response to scale.”

Support for exclusive breastfeeding is at the heart of all of UNICEF’s child survival programmes worldwide, backing mothers by advocating for strong national policies on infant feeding, better health services and extending support networks to reach the most vulnerable communities. UNICEF has also set up a range of ante- and post-natal outreach programmes to help women make informed and sustainable choices on feeding options for their children. 

But in many areas, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, most of the poorest women and children are still beyond the reach of existing networks and child survival indicators have stalled or are falling.

“Every day that we delay implementing programmes to support exclusive breastfeeding, more than 3,500 children die needlessly, and HIV is allowed to spread silently among the most vulnerable.” said Labbok.

“We are talking about three critical Millennium Development Goals – reducing malnutrition, saving children from preventable deaths, and cutting the HIV/AIDS infection rate in the young,” she said.  “With issues this critical, no effort is too great.”

For further information please contact:

Oliver Phillips, UNICEF New York, +1 212 326 7583, ophillips@unicef.org
Erica Kochi, +1 212 326, 7583, ekochi@unicef.org

NEW YORK, 1 August 2002 - Marking the start of World Breastfeeding Week today, UNICEF encouraged more hospitals to join the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, noting that recent studies provide yet more evidence of the many benefits of breastfeeding for both infants and mothers.

 
“Breastfeeding is still the best source of nutrition and growth for infants,” said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. “This simple act protects children’s lives in communities around the world, and it also reduces maternal illnesses. The most recent studies expand our understanding of the benefits of breastfeeding, making it clear that more must be done to support this practice.” UNICEF said that not even half of the world’s children are breastfed exclusively for the first six months of life.

The benefits of breastfeeding are well documented:

• Breastmilk has all the nutrients babies need to stay healthy and grow
• Breastfeeding boosts children’s immune systems, protecting them from diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections - two leading causes of infant death
• Breastfeeding helps nurture children and builds the mother-child bond
• Breastfeeding helps delay the next pregnancy, giving mother and child time to recover and grow.

Recent research has proven that a woman who breastfeeds is less likely to get breast cancer, in a comprehensive study published in The Lancet medical journal. She is also less likely to get many other forms of cancer.

UNICEF said that the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, launched in 1991, is an effort to ensure that all maternity facilities, whether free standing or in a hospital, support mothers in making the best infant-feeding choice for them, free of commercial interests. The ultimate goal of the Initiative is to empower every woman to make health-based decisions concerning infant feeding, and, if breastfeeding is her choice, to support her in breastfeeding her children exclusively for six months and to continue breastfeeding, with complementary food, into the second year of life and beyond.

Nearly every country has an authorized committee to certify maternity facilities as baby-friendly. Presently some 15,000 facilities in more than 130 countries have been awarded the status. These facilities help mothers begin breastfeeding within half an hour of birth, allow new mothers and their babies to be together 24 hours a day, and give infants no food other than breastmilk, except for medical reasons. UNICEF said that the Initiative recognizes each mother’s right to make her decision based on full and accurate information about feeding options.

“It’s not always easy for a mother to breastfeed,” Bellamy said. “The pressure of family responsibilities, restrictions in the workplace, and social expectations can, and often do, interfere with a mother’s preference to exclusively breastfeed her children. Women must be supported by husbands, communities, healthcare systems, and grandparents when considering what is best - and they must be supported to succeed once a choice is made.”

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For further information please contact:

Karuna Nundy, UNICEF Media, New York, knundy@unicef.org,
+1 212) 303-7941

Breastfeeding a Priority to Save Lives and Nurture Childhood Potential

NEW YORK, 1 August 2005 – Better infant feeding practices in the first two years of life could prevent almost one-fifth of all child deaths in the developing world, UNICEF said today at the start of World Breastfeeding Week.

Currently, an estimated 63 per cent of children under six months in the developing world are not adequately breastfed.   The results can be devastating.  Infants who are not breastfed early and exclusively are left with limited defenses against killer diseases like pneumonia and diarrhoea and lack essential nutrients to develop body and mind.

“Exclusive breastfeeding is ideal nourishment for babies up to six months old,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman.  “In a developing country, a child that is not breastfed is about three times more likely to die in early infancy than a breastfed child, and exclusive breastfeeding reduces the risk still further.”  

Breastfeeding provides vital nutrients, increasing the odds that children grow to be healthy and educated. It is a priceless gift, Veneman said, that almost every mother has the power to provide.  

The damage to children from lack of adequate breastfeeding and lack of good nutrition in the first two years of life can be permanent.  Immune-system weakness, stunted growth and compromised intelligence are just some of the possible long-term consequences.  In addition, around 5,500 children die every day as a result, one-fifth of all child deaths. And millions more are left to face a childhood of chronic illness and lost opportunities.

This toll of death and suffering is avoidable.  The nutrition a child needs in the first two years is already in the home: exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and continued breastfeeding combined with a family focus on safe, appropriate complementary feeding for two years or longer.

But UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2005 shows that exclusive breastfeeding rates are still very low, just 37 per cent worldwide.  More help for mothers is critical – to provide accurate information about babies’ nutritional needs, skilled support from health systems and communities and legal protection for breastfeeding at work or elsewhere.

Breastfeeding and good nutrition for children are essential to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals, particularly the goals relating to child survival, such as reducing child mortality by 50 per cent by 2015 and eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

“Poor families are on the frontline of the fight to reduce the world’s unacceptably high child mortality rates,” Veneman said.  “Helping them make simple improvements in child care could boost development efforts from child survival and health, to education and hunger reduction.”

And willingness to back such inexpensive yet powerful interventions is the only true test of global resolve to meet the Millennium Development Goals, she added.  

Basic support for mothers and children under two could dramatically improve children’s prospects in life.  These first two years must be the priority.

UNICEF works with partners, governments and communities to protect and promote breastfeeding by supporting national infant-feeding legislation, improving ante- and post-natal care and boosting resources for new mothers at the community-level. Protecting breastfeeding during emergencies is also a major UNICEF priority, when poor feeding practices can allow diseases to claim lives with frightening speed

For further information, please contact:

Oliver Phillips, UNICEF New York: +1 212 326 7583, ophillips@unicef.org

Kate Donovan, UNICEF New York: +1 212 326 7452, kdonovan@unicef.org

Footage is available to Broadcasters from Video on Demand at http://www.unicef.org/, or from the Newsmarket.
For nearly 60 years UNICEF has been the world’s leader for children, working on the ground in 157 countries to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence.  The world’s largest provider of vaccines for poor countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS.  UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. 

AMMAN, 4 August 2005 – In spite of notable achievements by countries like Syria and Egypt having reached more than fifty percent of exclusive breastfeeding at their national levels, the Middle East and North Africa region has yet to engage in more resolute action to ensure that infants are breastfed between 0-6 months of age.

Exclusive breastfeeding rates increased by 10% over the past decade in the region and improvements were also noted in complementary feeding and in continued breastfeeding for the second year of life. However, the lack of continued support and irregular monitoring of the process have led to a recent decline in breastfeeding and in the number of hospitals promoting the practice.

Today, less than half of mothers in the region exclusively breastfeed their infants for up to three months, said UNICEF today amidst ongoing celebrations of the World Breastfeeding Week. In addition, the poor nutrition and health status of women and female children in lowest-income countries like Djibouti, Yemen, Sudan (and now Iraq) create an inter-generational vicious circle affecting the nutritional status of newborns at a very early stage.

The duration of breastfeeding is also gradually declining in most countries, especially in urban areas. As a result, inappropriate complementary feeding and weaning practices are major causes of child under nutrition, which is highest in the age group between six months and two years.  Mixed breast and bottle feeding as early as the first month, and the premature introduction of complementary food are commonly found in all countries in the region. Infant formula is often diluted with unsafe water in non-sterile bottles.

Dealing with varied socioeconomic contrasts

Despite breastfeeding’s numerous recognized advantages over artificial feeding, several high-income countries in the region (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, UAE and Saudi Arabia) maintain patterns similar as European industrialized countries, where exclusive breastfeeding is still below 35% (12% in Qatar, Kuwait; 31% in Oman; 31% in Saudi Arabia and 34% in Bahrain and the UAE).

“Encouraging exclusive breastfeeding has to become a high priority in all sectors of society. Compared to breastfed babies, formula-fed babies get sick more often and are more likely to die in infancy or childhood. We know of good practices in low-income communities where empowered mothers are increasingly showing concrete intent to breastfeed”, said Dr. Mahendra Sheth, UNICEF Regional Health and Nutrition Adviser for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Delivering proper nutrition messages and educating the general public, particularly child care providers on the absolute benefits of breastfeeding are key interventions we have yet to apply comprehensively in the region”, Dr. Sheth added.

The Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative

In some countries where the advantages of breastfeeding have been widely publicized and where the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) has been implemented, breastfeeding rates are increasing. Countries like Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Syria, and countries in the Gulf countries have successfully adopted breastfeeding promotion and BFHI since the 1990’s.

Launched in 1991, the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative is an effort by UNICEF and the World Health Organization to ensure that all maternity centres become local leagues of breastfeeding support. Since the BFHI began, more than 15,000 facilities in 134 countries have been awarded Baby-Friendly status. In many areas where hospitals have been designated Baby-Friendly, more mothers are breastfeeding their infants, and child health has improved.

About Breastfeeding and Complementary Feeding

Breastmilk is the perfect nourishment for babies for the first six months of life. Alone it contains all the nutrients, antibodies, hormones and immune factors that a baby needs. If the drive for universal breastfeeding in the first six months of life is accomplished, an estimated 1.5 million lives could be saved each year. 

International experts recommend exclusive breastfeeding of infants for about six months and breastfeeding with good quality complementary foods up to two years. Breast milk contains nutritional substances ideal in quantity and quality for optimal growth and development of infants. In addition to its nutritional value, breast milk favourably changes the pH of stools and the intestinal flora, thus protecting against bacterial diarrhoea.
For further information, please contact:

Dr. Mahendra Sheth
UNICEF Regional Health & Nutrition Advisor
Middle East and North Africa
E-mail: msheth@unicef.org
Telephone:    (962-6) 550 2409

Wolfgang Friedl
Communication Officer
UNICEF MENA-RO
E-mail: wfriedl@unicef.org
Telephone: 9626-5502-422
Mobile: 00-96279-573-2745