Nutrition for Infants and Children: UNICEF-AED report now available

Guest post by Luann Martin, AED communications specialist with the Alive & Thrive program.

UNICEF’s nutrition section just released a report on its joint-effort with AED to review national  programs aimed at improving infant and young child feeding during the past 10-15 years in six African and Asian countries: Bangladesh; Benin; the Philippines; Sri Lanka; Uganda; and Uzbekistan. Several factors affected exclusive breastfeeding rates (breastmilk only in the first six months), including international leadership; a supportive, enabling environment in the workplace, market place, and health facility; a comprehensive approach that included community outreach; and use of multiple channels of communication.

The six countries illustrate different contexts for promotion of breastfeeding. For example, 98 percent of women deliver their babies in health facilities in Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan compared to 15 percent in Bangladesh. A lull in breastfeeding promotion in the Philippines combined with aggressive marketing of breastmillk substitutes resulted in a decline in exclusive breastfeeding rates. The report examines the impact of such factors on breastfeeding rates and provides a set of lessons learned and recommendations.

Full Report: http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/files/IYCF_Booklet_April_2010_Web.pdf

The lessons in the report are timely as world leaders strive to translate recent commitments to global maternal and child health at the G-8 Summit in Canada and the Women Deliver Conference in Washington into effective country programs. Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months is the number one preventive intervention to reduce death among children under the age of five, yet the rate is only 37 percent in developing countries. The report shows that impressive gains can be made and outlines what did and did not work in the six countries. World Breastfeeding Week, which will be celebrated August 1 – 7 this year, will issue a call with action steps to give higher priority to this life-saving and cost-effective intervention.

More info about our work on the topic is available on the AED Center for Nutrition’s website at http://www.aednutritioncenter.org/.