Breastfeeding A Best Way To Give New Born Necessary Nutrients: Chairman NCRC

Breastfeeding is the best way to give newborns the necessary nutrients and antibodies, which provide a vital shield of protection against disease, such as diarrhea and pneumonia, Chairperson National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) Afshan Tehseen said here on Saturday

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Jul, 2021 ) :Breastfeeding is the best way to give newborns the necessary nutrients and antibodies, which provide a vital shield of protection against disease, such as diarrhea and pneumonia, Chairperson National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) Afshan Tehseen said here on Saturday.

In a news release, she said breastfeeding decreases the risk of mothers developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. It is estimated that increased breastfeeding could avert 20,000 maternal deaths each year due to breast cancer, she added.

The World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) 2021 theme Protect breastfeeding; a shared responsibility is denoting how breastfeeding is indispensable for the survival, health and well being of all. The theme also acknowledges that support at the individual level is very important. The Federal and provincial governments have enacted legislation on protection and promotion of breastfeeding and child nutrition but there are issues of implementation.

She said that according to the WHO, exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of a baby's life and continued breastfeeding until the age of two with proper solid foods can guarantee a healthy life of a child.

Research worldwide claims that improving breastfeeding practices globally could save the lives of more than 820,000 children every year. There are only 40 percent of children under six months who are exclusively breastfed.

World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) occurs annually in the first week of August and represents a global celebration of breastfeeding efforts including breastfeeding promotion, support, education, research, progressive trends and normalizing breastfeeding as the gold standard of infant nutrition.

WHO states that in Pakistan, only 37.7 percent of mothers practice "exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months. Statistics suggested that 44 percent of Pakistani children are stunted (lower height for age, having poor cognition and other development milestones). According to the latest National Nutrition Survey (2018), early initiation of breastfeeding is as high as 61 percent in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) while only 20 percent of new born in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) are given breast milk during the first hour after birth. Practice of exclusive breastfeeding is above 50 percent in Sindh, KP and GB provinces and ranges between 42. And 44 percent in Punjab, Balochistan and AJK.