Support for continued breastfeeding

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that World Breastfeeding Week would take place under the theme ‘Closing the gap: Breastfeeding support for all’. As part of the launch, Unicef and WHO emphasised a ‘need to improve breastfeeding support as a critical action for reducing health inequity and protecting the rights of mothers and babies to survive and thrive’. They added that when breastfeeding is protected and supported, women are more than twice as likely to breastfeed and that it is a shared responsibility, with families, communities, healthcare workers, policymakers, and other decision-makers ‘playing a central role’ (WHO, 2024).

Exclusive breastfeeding is defined as only giving an infant breast milk for the first 6 months of life with no other food or water, and it is stated that this has the single largest potential impact on child mortality of any preventive intervention. Crucially, the WHO says this is part of optimal breastfeeding practices which include initiation within 1 hour of life and continued breastfeeding for up to 2 years of age or beyond (WHO, 2014).