Thursday, September 16, 2021

Ghana launches National Breastfeeding Week

The World Health Organization has joined the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service, and partners to launch the 2021 National Breastfeeding Week celebration under the theme, Protect Breastfeeding: A shared responsibility.

This year’s event will focus on raising awareness and galvanizing action on protecting breastfeeding to improve public health. The week-long celebration will be marked with a call on stakeholders to make investments and commitments to support actions aimed at reducing   malnutrition amongst newborns, infants, and young children in Ghana.

Ghana’s exclusive breastfeeding rate currently stands at 43 percent, representing a significant drop from 63 percent in 2008. Optimal breastfeeding practices: that is, early initiation within the first hour of birth, exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, and appropriate complementary feeding with continued breastfeeding up to 2 years or beyond - are among the most effective interventions to protect children from common causes of death, including complications from prematurity, newborn infections, pneumonia, and diarrhoea.



WHO and UNICEF released a number of capacity-building tools for the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) during the Global launch of World Breastfeeding Week in August 2021. These include a BFHI Competency Verification Toolkit for direct care providers, training of maternity staff in BFHI, and the care for small, sick, and pre-term babies. The tools can also help improve health workers' skills and competencies to ensure universal access to skilled breastfeeding support.

source: APO