Dr Catharina Boehme, Officer-in-Charge, WHO South-East Asia
Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure a baby’s health and development. Breastmilk provides all the nutrition needed to survive and thrive, supports healthy growth and brain development, reduces obesity in children, and functions as a child’s first vaccine by strengthening immunity and protecting against serious illnesses. For mothers, breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast and ovarian cancers, type 2 diabetes, and other non-communicable diseases.
This year, the theme for World Breastfeeding Week, “Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works,” is a call to scale proven approaches and ensure interventions reach every mother and child.
The first hour after birth is one of the most critical and life-saving periods, and early initiation of breastfeeding is one of the most effective interventions for newborn survival. Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for the first six months of life has the single largest potential impact on child mortality of any preventive intervention.
We know what works. Proven interventions such as antenatal breastfeeding counselling, skilled support at birth including after caesarean section, baby-friendly hospital practices, immediate skin-to-skin contact, avoiding unnecessary separation of mothers and newborns, and continued post-delivery breastfeeding support can significantly improve early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding rates.
Global and regional frameworks underpin efforts. Every infant and child has the right to good nutrition under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which further obliges countries to promote the advantages of breastfeeding. The WHO/UNICEF Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding sets out government and stakeholder responsibilities for an enabling breastfeeding environment, and the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative helps motivate facilities to implement the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding guidance.
To support Member States to implement these frameworks, the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office has developed a set of facility-based breastfeeding monitoring tools. These are designed to help countries operationalise, monitor, and expand effective breastfeeding support in institutions, while recognising the resource and capacity constraints faced by national health systems.
Yet progress has been uneven. While the WHO South-East Asia Region has historically been among the world's best performers in EBF, recent data shows progress is stalling in some countries, and findings in India indicate a decline in EBF rates from 63.7% (2019/2021) to 55.8% (2023/24). Rates of early initiation of breastfeeding remain uneven, ranging from 30% in Thailand to 90% in Sri Lanka.
WHO calls on countries to:
- integrate breastfeeding support in antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal services, including for mothers undergoing caesarean section and infants in intensive care;
- institutionalise baby-friendly practices in all maternity and newborn care facilities, including immediate skin-to-skin contact after birth, rooming-in, and avoiding the unnecessary separation of mothers and newborns;
- strengthen and monitor the implementation of early initiation of breastfeeding through WHO monitoring tools to identify gaps;
- create supportive environments in all maternity and newborn care facilities through the enforcement of National Codes of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.
At a time when development financing is under increasing pressure, countries must prioritise investments that deliver the greatest returns. Few investments can match breastfeeding in its impact on health, nutrition, learning, and economic outcomes.
By scaling up proven interventions, Member States can accelerate progress toward breastfeeding targets, improve health outcomes, and build healthier, more resilient societies.
This World Breastfeeding Week, let us give every mother the support she needs, to strengthen what works for a sustainable start in life.