Dhaka: ‘Strengthen breastfeeding support and health systems to give every child a healthy start in life.’ This call to action highlights the urgent need to address the lack of access to services and interventions that enable and support breastfeeding for mothers and families worldwide.

According to United News of Bangladesh, breastfeeding is a simple yet powerful way to safeguard a child’s health by providing essential nutrition, boosting immunity, protecting against serious illnesses, and supporting cognitive development. Additionally, breastfeeding offers significant health benefits for mothers, reducing the risk of noncommunicable diseases such as breast and ovarian cancers and type 2 diabetes.

Encouragingly, global breastfeeding rates are on the rise. Exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months has increased from around 37 percent in 2012 to over 47 percent today. The prevalence of breastfeeding up to two years of age has also risen from 38 percent to 50 percent over the past five years. These improvements indicate that investments in policies and programs for mothers and families are yielding results. However, progress remains uneven, with many countries falling short of global targets. Coverage of services supporting breastfeeding is still low, policies are inconsistently enforced, and service quality is often inadequate, especially in low-income, fragile, and humanitarian settings.

The evidence points to cost-effective interventions such as skilled breastfeeding support within health systems, community-based counseling, maternity protection policies, and protection from the exploitative marketing of commercial milk formulas. The potential returns are significant, as scaling up breastfeeding could prevent nearly 400,000 child deaths and approximately 140,000 maternal deaths annually. Moreover, every US$ 1 invested in breastfeeding promotion generates an estimated US$ 59 in economic returns through reduced healthcare costs, improved cognitive development, higher educational attainment, and increased lifetime earnings.

This World Breastfeeding Week, under the theme ‘Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works,’ UNICEF and WHO urge countries to take several actions. These include strengthening health systems to provide quality breastfeeding support, expanding community-based counseling and peer programs, fully implementing the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, investing in paid maternity leave and supportive workplace policies, integrating breastfeeding interventions into antenatal, perinatal, and postnatal healthcare services, and sustaining breastfeeding support in humanitarian and fragile contexts.

Breastfeeding is vital, and by investing in proven solutions, societies can ensure every child receives the best possible start in life while providing mothers with the care and services they need.