‘Breastfeeding reduces infant mortality’

Health ministry moot cites improved immunity among benefits

ISLAMABAD:

The lives of nearly 820,000 children under the age of five could be saved every year by increasing breastfeeding rates in Pakistan, said experts at a seminar organised by the health ministry in Islamabad on Wednesday as part of breast cancer awareness week activities that take place in the first week of August across the globe. Experts at the seminar underscored the importance of a mother’s milk, saying it had the necessary nutrients for the nourishment and development of the child. Powdered milk cannot be a substitute for mother's milk, they said.

The director general of the health department, Dr Baseer Achakzai, said that breastfeeding would help bring down rates of breast cancer and maternal mortality. Pakistan has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world, with 186 deaths every 100,000 live births, according to 2020 data, although it was a massive improvement from earlier numbers. It must be noted that the numbers remain skewed, with the rate highest in Balochistan (298), followed by Sindh (224), while Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan reported 157 deaths and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 165 deaths, according to a UN agency.

Pakistan is also one of the countries that has the highest mortality rate for children under-five, surpassing the global rate of 37 deaths per 1000 livebirths as of 2020, leading with a child mortality rate of 65.2/1000, according to a paper by the Pakistan Institute of Health. Other third-world developing countries with high infant and child mortality rates include Yemen with 60 deaths per 1000 live births, Afghanistan with 58 deaths and India with 33 fatalities. The speakers at the health ministry seminar spoke at length about the importance of breastfeeding and its role in reducing mortality rates.

“The importance of breast feeding can’t be denied in preventing newborn children mortality and breast cancer in women,” said Achakzai. Experts said that breastfeeding protects the child from diseases and increases immunity.