In a snapshot of the situation in China the aid agency also spoke to mothers finding that:
-- 40% of mothers surveyed reported being given formula samples by some breast milk substitute's company representatives or health workers. Of this 60% were said to be provided by baby food company representatives, and over 30% were said to be given by health workers.-- 40% of mothers surveyed said they had been contacted directly by representatives of breast milk substitutes companies; half of them had been contacted in hospitals and over one-third by phone.
The aid agency said women who give birth with the help of skilled birth attendants are twice as likely to breastfeed in the first crucial hour and that plugging a critical gap of 3.5 million health workers would dramatically increase the number of breastfeeding moms.
Ms Erb continued: "If every baby was fed during the first hour of life - what we call the "power hour" - we estimate that up to 830,000 new-born deaths could be prevented every year; that's 95 babies every hour. And if moms were helped to breastfeed for a minimum of six months, many more children would be protected from killer diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea. It is a matter of life and death."
The aid agency said that stopping children from dying from preventable disease and hunger is possible in our lifetime but only if world leaders step up their fight with greater funding for malnutrition, and breastfeeding in particular.
Ms Erb added: "We are at a global tipping point. The Canadian government has been a leader on maternal newborn child health and nutrition and with continued leadership and global focus we could be the generation to stop children dying from preventable disease and malnutrition. This year's G8 is a once in a lifetime opportunity to focus effort on a final push to end hunger."
The aid agency is calling on:
-- The Canadian government to use the G8 in June and associated hunger summit to fund nutrition work with breastfeeding as a core component and to encourage other world leaders to follow their example.-- Other donor countries to step up their funding for nutrition.-- For every developing world country to put in place plans to increase breastfeeding rates.-- Breast milk substitute companies to increase health warnings that formula is inferior to breast milk to cover one-third of its packaging.-- All governments to turn the International Code and subsequent Resolutions on breast milk substitutes into law and ensure it is independently monitored and enforced.
Notes to editors:
- To calculate that 95 babies could be saved every hour we projected trends in both Ghana and Nepal, alongside the most recent neonatal data. This is an estimate but uses the best available evidence and reflects trends highlighted by WHO. This method assumes that the effects of breastfeeding are constant across various countries and contexts, and that the effects shown in Ghana and Nepal are a reasonable approximation to the global average. A full narrative of the calculation is available upon request.
- Predicted figures of East Asia growth have been taken from Euromonitor, Safety First: Global baby food opportunities and challenges to 2015, February 2011.
- The International Code of the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes is here http://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/infantfeeding/9241541601/en/
- UNICEF recently reviewed the declining rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the region and found that the overall rate, which in 2006 was 45% including China or 32% excluding China, had fallen to 29% for the whole region in 2012. This data is not comparable with current exclusive breastfeeding rates as in 2006 China measured exclusive breastfeeding up to four months and allowed for an infant's additional intake of water.
- In a rough snapshot of evidence Save the Children International spoke to 291 mothers of infants from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Beijing, Jinan from Shandong Province, Shanghai, Nanjing from Jiangsu Province, and Shenzhen from Guangdong Province.
- In Pakistan Save the Children International spoke to 2400 mothers and 1200 health workers across Pakistan through respected pollsters Gallup.
To read the report, please click: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Superfood_for_Babies_Africa.pdf.
Contacts:
Save the Children
Cicely McWilliam
cmcwilliam@savethechildren.ca
(647) 291-1683
Save the Children
Bryna Jones
bjones@savethechildren.ca
(647) 273-7134
