Ayesha Nyanzunda
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have called for equal access to breastfeeding support for women so that they optimally breastfeed their babies.
In a joint statement commemorating World Breastfeeding Week, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “An estimated 4.5 billion people—that’s more than half of the world’s population—do not have full coverage of essential health services, so many women do not receive the support they need to optimally breastfeed their babies. This includes access to trained, empathetic, and respectful health advice and counselling throughout a woman’s breastfeeding journey.”
UNICEF and WHO highlighted the need to strengthen breastfeeding assistance as a crucial measure for decreasing health inequalities and preserving the rights of women and babies to live and flourish during World Breastfeeding Week, which has as its theme “Closing the gap: Breastfeeding support for all.”
According to UNICEF and WHO, reliable data gathering is essential order to address healthcare disparities and guarantee that moms and families receive prompt, efficient breastfeeding support. Only half of all nations now gather statistics on breastfeeding rates.
Data on legislative measures that facilitate breastfeeding, such as family-friendly hiring practices, laws governing the promotion of breastmilk substitutes, and funding for breastfeeding, must also be accessible in order to facilitate advancement.
Enhancing monitoring systems will ensure that support systems can be sufficiently funded, improve decision-making, and increase the efficacy of breastfeeding policies and programs.
“In the last 12 years, the number of infants under six months of age globally who are exclusively breastfed has increased by more than 10%.
This means 48% of infants worldwide now benefit from this healthy start in life. It translates to hundreds of thousands of babies whose lives have been saved by breastfeeding,” added Russell and Ghebreyesus.
Even though this enormous step puts us one step closer to the World Health Organization’s goal of at least 50% exclusive breastfeeding by 2025, there are still issues that need to be resolved.
According to a UNICEF-Zimbabwe 2023 report titled ‘Small lives matter: Breastfeeding is best the cost of inaction’ , Zimbabwe would not fulfil the SDG targets by 2030 at the present rate of stunting reduction, according to Joint Malnutrition Estimates of May 2023.
Breastfeeding offers a chance to expedite the decrease of stunting( occurs when a child does not have sufficient nutrition to grow and develop ) and raise the rates of exclusive breastfeeding.
World Breastfeeding Week is an annual celebration which is held every year from 1 to 7 August