Originally published January 12 2006
UNICEF pushes to raise global awareness of breastfeeding benefits for infant health
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Miriam Labbok of UNICEF claimed that 1.3 million children could be saved every year if mothers accepted the UNICEF recommendation of exclusive breastfeeding until a child reaches six months, with two years of complementary feeding after those first six months.
Breastfeeding is saving the lives of 6 million babies a year, but more than twice that could be saved if more mothers would use the time-honoured method, the UN children's agency said Tuesday.
Thirty-nine per cent of infants in developing countries are exclusively breast fed, UNICEF said, blaming "lack of awareness amongst mothers, and lack of support from health workers and communities."
A total of 1.3 million lives could be saved each year if mothers followed its recommendation of exclusive breastfeeding up until six months, then complementary feeding for at least two years, Miriam Labbok of UNICEF said in a statement.
UNICEF said breast milk gives a baby ideal nourishment and disease immunity.
Global breast-feeding rates rose at least 15 per cent from 1990 and 2000, UNICEF said, as advocacy groups campaigned for the practice.
A separate joint statement by UNICEF, the World Health Organization and other organizations said, however, that HIV-positive mothers needed counselling and advice in deciding how to breastfeed their babies because of the risk that the infant could be infected.
Studies have shown that drugs can greatly lower the infection rate, which the statement estimated at five to 20 per cent without treatment.
In the United States, 58 per cent of babies were breast fed in 1994, according to a report released last year by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared with just 30 per cent in 1974.
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