We must do better for our newborns – breastfeeding rates are abysmal
The breastfeeding rate for new born babies in Guyana is now about 23 per cent. Breastfeeding rates have been improving in Guyana since 1995 and were at least close to 50 per cent in 2010. Why it is now only 23 per cent demonstrates that public health administration is failing our mothers and our children. Under the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC), public health has been relegated to lesser priority and this is reflected by poor public health programmes that now neglect important initiatives such as exclusive breastfeeding for newborns.
A breastfeeding rate of 23 per cent is abysmal and is an anti-children status for Guyana. For APNU/AFC which is so mesmerised and infatuated with Commissions of Inquiries (CoI), the abomination of 23 per cent breastfeeding rate deserves its own CoI. Indeed, the Opposition is urged to introduce a motion in Parliament to seek explanation why we have deteriorated so badly.
Even as Guyana has fallen to 23 per cent in breastfeeding rates, Rwanda is exceeding 90 per cent; Sri Lanka – 76 per cent; Cambodia, Solomon Islands and Nepal – 74 per cent, Malawi – 72 per cent; Peru – 71 per cent; Eritrea – 59 per cent; Uganda – 57 per cent; Egypt and Iran – 56 per cent; Bolivia –
50 per cent; and Madagascar – 48 per cent. It is no accident that these countries have made significant progress in reducing child mortalities.
Child mortality has decreased considerably in the last 20 years, in both Guyana and globally. Globally, close to seven million children under five years of age still die each year (dropping from about 20 million in 1990), mainly from preventable causes. In Guyana, child mortality fell from 120 per 1000 to less than 20 in that period. In both Guyana and globally, newborn deaths now represent nearly 50 to 75 per cent of all child deaths under five years. One strategy to reduce child mortality further is immediate breastfeeding: Science has proven that placing babies to the mother’s breasts within an hour after birth significantly reduce neonatal mortality.
For the last 20 years at least, we have tried to persuade mothers and fathers that early and exclusive breastfeeding helps children survive, supports healthy brain development, improves cognitive performance and is a major factor in better educational achievement at age five. UNICEF, the World Health Organisation and scientists across the world have promoted breastfeeding as the foundation of good nutrition and a platform to protect children against disease.
Yet, the Public Health Ministry has failed our mothers and children and our families by allowing breastfeeding rates to deteriorate so dramatically. It is true that less than half of the world’s newborns benefit from early breastfeeding and even fewer are exclusively breastfed for the first six months. But for Guyana to see breastfeeding rates drop is another example of how the APNU/AFC is failing our people.
Of all the preventive interventions to reduce child deaths, optimal breastfeeding of infants under two years of age has proven to be the most effective. Exclusive breastfeeding has the potential to prevent over 800,000 deaths (13 per cent of all deaths) in children under five in the developing world this year. For countries like Guyana to ignore this powerful strategy in its public health programme is a scandal and the Public Health Ministry needs to provide an explanation why it has failed and what it intends to do to change this dismal reality.
Science is clear on breastfeeding. An exclusively breastfed child is 14 times less likely to die in the first six months than a non-breastfed child, and breastfeeding drastically reduces deaths from acute respiratory infection and diarrhoea, two major child killers, particularly in developing countries with a high burden of disease and low access to clean water and sanitation. But non-breastfed children in industrialised countries are also at greater risk of dying – in the United States there is a 25 per cent increase in mortality among non-breastfed infants. In the UK Millennium Cohort Survey, six months of exclusive breastfeeding was associated with a 53 per cent decrease in hospital admissions for diarrhoea and a 27 per cent decrease in respiratory tract infections.
The scientific imperatives for an aggressive breastfeeding programme for newborns are undeniable. But the sad reality is that only 39 per cent of children less than six months of age in the developing world are exclusively breastfed and just 58 per cent of 20-23-month-olds benefit from the practice of continued breastfeeding. In Guyana we have also seen increases from under 15 per cent in 1990 to about 50 per cent by 2010. The reported rate of less than 23 per cent now must be regarded as an urgent cry to do better for our families. It is a dismal failure of the Public Health Ministry, one that requires an immediate crisis response. This is why we must have a meaningful accountability measure in place: a CoI is a way to show Government is serious and I urge the Opposition to introduce a motion seeking better answers from APNU/AFC. (Send comments to [email protected])
