Six million lives a year are being saved by exclusive breastfeeding, and global breastfeeding rates have risen by at least 15 per cent since 1990, says a report released on the 15th anniversary of the Innocenti Declaration on the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding.
Between 1990 and 2000, exclusive breastfeeding levels for children under six months in the developing world have increased by as much as three or fourfold in some countries.
UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other child survival partners hailed this progress as they commemorated the adoption of the landmark Innocenti Declaration fifteen years ago today, at a meeting in Florence, Italy. At least 30 governments signed onto the Declaration in 1990, a document which set ambitious new standards for national support to breastfeeding.
“Exclusive breastfeeding is one of the most powerful tools we have to combat child hunger and death,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman. “The Innocenti Declaration created a movement that has helped to save millions of lives and brought us closer to the Millennium Development Goals.”
This celebratory event is jointly organized by the Regional Authority of Tuscany and the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre with a wide partnership, including the Italian National Committee for UNICEF, UN organizations, as well as non-governmental organizations like the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, the International Baby Food Action Network among others and an international expert panel.
Veneman said the achievements since the Innocenti Declaration should inspire us to do more to reach out to vulnerable mothers and children. She praised the dedication of a vast international community of breastfeeding advocates, who have worked tirelessly to turn the promises of the Innocenti Declaration, and the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative, into action.
Through their efforts, nearly 20,000 hospitals in 150 countries have become “baby-friendly”, more than 60 countries have laws or regulations implementing the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, and many countries have some form of national breastfeeding authority.
But the Innocenti partners warned that the original goals of the Declaration are still far from met. For instance, only 39 per cent of infants in developing countries are exclusively breastfed. Lack of awareness amongst mothers, and lack of support from health workers and communities, is largely to blame.
Breast milk gives a baby ideal nourishment during the critical first months of life, as well as vital immunity against killer diseases like pneumonia. Babies should be exclusively breastfed from birth to six months, and then breastfed alongside age-appropriate, complementary feeding for two years and beyond.
Achieving this target would give an extraordinary boost to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is estimated that almost one-fifth of all child deaths could be prevented if this target is achieved, saving over two million children per year.
The new Innocenti report published by UNICEF, WHO and other infant-feeding specialists, calls for greater government action and investment to protect exclusive breastfeeding.
It also warns that mothers and children are facing new dangers, including a growing number of emergencies and the continued rise of HIV/AIDS. Women need to be supported in providing the best nourishment for their children and governments urgently need to mainstream the latest strategies for HIV positive mothers and infant-feeding into national policies.
“In times of crisis, the right feeding practices for children are the key to saving lives,” said Veneman.
For nearly 60 years UNICEF has been the world’s leader for children, working on the ground in 157 countries to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for poor countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
P.S. from Katie: That cute kid on the pony in the photos below was breastfed for more than four years. She's healthy, happy, and athletic, and nursing her was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life thus far.
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Did I read that correctly? Don't you mean you breastfed her for four MONTHS? Not four years, right?
Katie, I know this may be sensitive for you, but did you say you could not nurse one of your babies? If this is correct, are you willing to share any observations on the health of that child compared with your other two?
No, not sensitive at all :-)
It wasn't that I couldn't, it's that I didn't. With my first baby, I was 23 years old and just got really bad advice. It was the classic situation. he lost, like seven ounces in a week, and the doctor told me to supplement with formula or he would end up sick. WHo was I to question? It scared me to death! He didn't suggest pumpingg. He didn't tell me anything about nipple confusion or whatever. So I started giving Henry bottles and the more bottles he had, the less he wanted to nurse. And because he wasn't nursing, I got mastitis. My doctor put me in the hospital for three days on IV antibiotics and told me I had to pump my breastmilk and dump it out because the baby would get sick from my infection (of course every bit of this was handled wrong, but I was clueless). When I came home from the hospital after a few days -- my grandparents had been caring for Henry -- he was totally enamored of bottles and never nursed again.
As I learned more about breastfeeding, I became really pissed off about this medical advice that denied me the chance to nurse my son. It was actually quite a radicalizing experience. I became that wacky bottle feeding mom at the La Leche League meetings ;-)
Henry was a baby who got many ear infections and he suffers from allergies and headaches. He was also really fat as a bottlefed infant, even though he was a tiny newborn and is now a small-for-age teenager. He was fat until he went off infant formula.
Four years after Henry was born, I gave birth to Jane, who nursed for more than four years. She never had a bottle. Then Elliot was born two years after that and he nursed for three years - no bottles. He spent his first three weeks in the NICU but I still nursed him exclusively, which was very empowering for me, since you feel really helpless when your newborn is sick...
Hi Katie,
I really liked the foreword you wrote for Adventures in Gentle Discipline and related to your experiences and feelings. I don't hit my kids and have received a lot of support but also had one friend wish me luck when I told her about our no-hitting stance. I too didn't breastfeed my firstborn due to a culmination of difficult situations similar to yours; this caused me much emotional pain. I was able to express for my firstborn for the first five weeks and I don't know if this helped but, he enjoys very good health and only got his first ear infection at 3 1/2 years of age. When my daughter was born I tried breastfeeding. It was very difficult in the early weeks, but I got good support from my husband and mid-wife and my now 11-month old daughter is still breastfed and has never had a bottle! We will breastfeed for as long as we both want to, can't see the end in sight yet. It is a wonderful experience and on the practical side I LOVE not washing and making up bottles and I am back to my pre-pregnancy size!
Best wishes,
Amanda, mum to Benedict and Ivy in New Zealand
Katie, thank you for your honest discussion of your first born's problems. I think it proves your point about breastfeeding! One of my friends who has a 5 month old is doing great with nursing. Her baby had some problems latching on and suckling at first, partly because she had a c-section. But the healthcare professionals she dealt with helped her and the baby continue with nursing. She is a beautiful, healthy baby.
that is all very interesting but my son got ear infections (as does his cousin) they were the only two breastfed ones in the family. every one else got the bottle and no ear infections. I would never draw a conclusion that formula "prevented" ear infections. I think sometimes it just happens. I have known seriously ill children who were breastfed. if that child had "happened" to be bottlefed instead and had had hte bad fortune to have had breastfed siblings without the same disease then if their mother was like you she would have been running all around town braying about how the "evil formula" did this to the child instead of acknowledging that sometimes, things happen beyond our control.
my breastfed aunt died a horrible death from MS. my breastfed mother has an autoimmune disease. these things happen. I really believe a lot of the modern health problems have arisen because having eradicated many diseases that used to kill people off earlier in life and having made life much much safer...people simply live long enough for stuff to get them that they didnt before.
so I wonder, does Henry know that you just "know" that he is stupider by about eight IQ points than his siblings? I wonder if he will achieve less than them because in talking so much about this, no doubt in front of him, you have probably set up a self fulfilling prophecy.
SOmeone asked about the relative health differences among MY children. I answered that question.
Your anecdotal examples are interesting but meaningless (just as my anecdotal examples are statistically meaningless).
The health difference outcomes among breastfed and non-breastfed children show up again and again in all kinds of peer reviewed medical research. They are epidemiological in nature, meaning that among GROUPS of breast and bottlefed children, bottlefed children are less healthy.
As for anecdotal examples about individual children, I myself rode around without a carseat as a child and am healthy and well today. That doesn't mean carseats don't save lives.
I think further when you examine the data all of the physical problems supposedly affected by breastfeeding have EXTREMELY small differences between breast and bottle fed children IN THIS COUNTRY. it is extremely dishonest that "lactivists" use illness in other countries caused by lack of proper storage for formula as "reasons to breastfeed" for women in a totally different situation. there are many many childhood ills that simply just happen and indeed, some of them, such as allergies have come out with studies that actually say breastfed children get MORE allergies. most of these studies have contradicting studies. the ones promoting breastfeeding are usually the ones that get the publicity. the ones that are less conclusive dont. I really think breastfeeding falls into the "cant hurt, might help" category. because one child "happened" to have health issues that neatly dovetail with what breastfeeding is "supposed" to prevent does not a case make. there are as many people out there (such as myself) who could point to their bottlefed child as the healthier one of their two children or who could say that neither is healthier. Henry proves nothing. maybe its the formula, maybe it isnt. my children were both skinny as rails..both the breast and the bottle. as I was as a very young bottlefed child. like I said, the actual numbers comparing breast and bottlefed children are very very low. even in cases where there is a difference it is usually not huge when you read the actual study. although of course the headlines would make you think differently (it is not just breastfeeding..its any health issue really..when you read the actual article it is almost always much more modest than the screaming headline would indicate)
and I would like to know what else may ALSO have been responsible. you cannot divide people up into totally equal control groups the way you do rats and make everything else but the breastfeeding identical. it is a well known fact that people who choose to breastfeed are health conscious in many other ways. I am certain that some of those ways may perhaps more directly impact infant mortality. if we are talking anecdotal evidence (which isnt terribly scientific) my personal observations are that most of the very sickly kids I knew were breastfed.
oops. posted too soon. I know someone who is breastfeeding an almost two year old who has had repeated attacks of RSV and has been hospitalized a couple of times. this never happened to my bottlefed daughter. what might I conclude from this? that the formula protected her? nah..I doubt it...sometimes stuff just happens. I suppose the lactivists among you would speculate that she might have been even sicker without the breastfeeding but really you just dont know..do you?
I am a huge skeptic of health studies..most of them wind up sheepishly refuted a few years later anyway. there are a handful of things that are rather commonsensical..eat less, excercise more, dont smoke..but we dont need studies to show that and the numbers on those ones are NOT tiny. (i might add as far as the smokers go...there actually was one that showed that men who smoked pipes lived LONGER than complete nonsmokers..my guess is it had something to do with stress reduction..so even smoking is not absolutist...there is even debate on that one as far as pipes and cigars go)
and you dont know that if you had worked like a dog to keep breastfeeding if you would STILL have wound up bottlefeeding. newsflash Katie: it happens. it happened a hundred years ago too only women had to watch their babies die instead of live on formula. women a hundred of years ago would have LOVED to have had an option besides watching their baby starve to death. yeah, maybe he would have been just fine but you really dont know do you? if you had plugged ahead dog determined to breastfeed no matter what then maybe Henry would have been keeping his cousin Ward company instead of being a normal teen boy. and btw...maybe the "headaches" are from the stress of knowing that his mother thinks he has an inferior IQ
hey, I saw some chick with about five LLL and "breast is best" stickers (even a license plate frame: how droll!!!) in the parking lot today. I am so proud of myself because I managed to keep my hand in my pocket instead of allowing my key containing hand to creep on over and scratch the hell out of that van. I was SOOO tempted.
Anonymous - YOur reference to my toddler nephew's drowning death in this discussion is so incredibly disgusting.
I am removing your post because I don't want his mother to stumble on it.
You are truly sick.
Katie
no I am not "truly sick"...you hammer away at this..I remember you on AOL years ago,...after thanks to LLL thumbs up thier rear ends I botched breastfeeding. of course I will never know that if that was not Gods way to prevent me from starving my daughter to death. that was the same time frame it hit the media that several women had done just that and were now being prosecuted for manslaughter. thanks to people like you the fact that I had some severe insecurity issues and that I had lost a parent very young due to severe neglect of his health all intersected and pushed me over the edge.
however when I read your blog and see how truly messed up you are and how off base from reality in areas that have nothing to do with "attachment parenting" I realize this is the kind of people who promote this stuff and it is rather vindicating.
I find picking at you fun.
I felt truly bad for Ward and really could not stoop to saying some things I was tempted to say becasue I know any parent can take thier eyes off their kids for an instant and something tragic happens.
for the comment up a few posts I was making a point that you really do not know, just as I do not know..that if you had kept on trying to breastfeed if in fact your child would have starved. in your case I question whether you would have had the sense to quit and switch to formula if it becamse truly neccessary. when I had my second child it was truly day to day
I cut off early..with my second child I watched him like a hawk and I was truly ready to pull out the formula at any time because my husband pulled me aside and said you will NOT jeopardize our childs health just because these nutballs have you convinced your child will die if they dont get the magic titty. now I really see "lactivists' as the emotionally unbalanced people that they are. really when I see stuff like the way you yammer on about political issues that you are very smug that you "think' you know the answers too. the lack of common sense..my god..you cant even cook..dont even want to learn..talk about a basic life skill for both boys and girls. you dont even know how to manage your money (however you can analyze stupid intelligentsia minutiae that matter not a bit in the big scheme of things)you persist in flaunting your children explicitly on the web despite almost constant media attention about how dangerous that is. your ideas on what constitutes a relationship between men and women is so off base its pathetic. not that this stuff is good but I find it incredibly vindicating to find that this is the kidn of people that push "attachment parenting" and are so pro breastfeeding they have lost track of reality. you are such a joke Katie.I find it fun to laugh at you.
yeah you will probably delete my post but you will read it first, wont you?
You are one scary person, anonymous. Seriously. You scare me. I think you might be dangerous.
And your life must be incredibly pathetic that you actually CARE enough to write things like this on someone's blog. That post must have taken a few minutes of your time. What a waste. For you but mostly for all the people who find your presence here so unpleasant.
I wish Katie would ban your IP from her blog because frankly, your constant online harassment of someone who never bothers you or even really responds to you is just bizarre and scary.
Your assumptions about Katie's money management and love life based on the few flip comments she's made here and there on her blog are just weird.
You are so clearly jealous of Katie that it's textbook.
Go away. No one here likes you. Find an online place where people like you. We don't.
no I am not jealous of Katie. so glad you are an armchair psychologist though. her attachment parenting theories helped to cause me great grief though and I am enjoying hte couple of minutes a day I spend getting back at her. so back off Freud, you are wrong.
actually I think there ARE people here who like me. just not Katie and her cohorts. there are plenty of people who drop by and cant believe the stupidity.
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