\r\n \t
  • WHO<\/span>\u2019s Laurence Grummer-Strawn, an expert on infant and young child feeding, discusses data indicating the many benefits of early breastfeeding, despite the low global rates of early initiation.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • How can funding help support advocacy and training efforts to increase awareness about early breastfeeding?<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Learn about the challenges of exclusive breastfeeding.\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","intro":null,"content":"With\u00a0new data\u00a0showing that less than half of all mothers follow global recommendations to start breastfeeding their babies within an hour of giving birth, an official from the World Health Organization (WHO) says more funding is needed to improve training and advocacy efforts.The\u00a0WHO\u2019s Laurence Grummer-Strawn, an expert on infant and young child feeding, pointed to a host of benefits that come from early initiation of breastfeeding, including a reduced risk of common infections. Babies who begin breastfeeding between two and 23 hours after birth actually have a 33 percent greater risk of dying compared to newborns who start within the first hour, according to a recent meta-analysis.The new findings from the\u00a0WHO\u00a0and\u00a0UNICEF\u00a0indicate, though, that the decades-long effort to encourage early initiation continues to face a variety of barriers: cultural practices, the way health systems are structured, and a basic lack of understanding among health workers.Malnutrition Deeply spoke to Grummer-Strawn about what could be done to overcome those hurdles and improve early initiation rates.Malnutrition Deeply: Was there anything that surprised you about the report\u2019s findings?Grummer-Strawn: I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d say surprised, necessarily, but certainly disappointed. Promoting early initiation of breastfeeding has been a part of\u00a0WHO\u00a0and\u00a0UNICEF\u00a0recommendations, really since 1989. It is disappointing that we aren\u2019t even up to half of babies being put to the breast in the first hour after birth.We would think that this is something that ought to be fairly easy to improve. We ought to be able to get this taken care of. We\u2019re just frustrated, I think, that we haven\u2019t been able to move this as much as we would\u2019ve liked.","html_content":"

    With\u00a0new data<\/a>\u00a0showing that less than half of all mothers follow global recommendations to start breastfeeding their babies within an hour of giving birth, an official from the World Health Organization (WHO<\/span>) says more funding is needed to improve training and advocacy efforts.<\/p>

    The\u00a0WHO<\/span>\u2019s Laurence Grummer-Strawn, an expert on infant and young child feeding, pointed to a host of benefits that come from early initiation of breastfeeding, including a reduced risk of common infections. Babies who begin breastfeeding between two and 23 hours after birth actually have a 33 percent greater risk of dying compared to newborns who start within the first hour, according to a recent meta-analysis.<\/p>

    The new findings from the\u00a0WHO<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0UNICEF<\/span>\u00a0indicate, though, that the decades-long effort to encourage early initiation continues to face a variety of barriers: cultural practices, the way health systems are structured, and a basic lack of understanding among health workers.<\/p>

    Malnutrition Deeply spoke to Grummer-Strawn about what could be done to overcome those hurdles and improve early initiation rates.<\/p>

    Malnutrition Deeply: Was there anything that surprised you about the report\u2019s findings?<\/h2>

    Grummer-Strawn: I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d say surprised, necessarily, but certainly disappointed. Promoting early initiation of breastfeeding has been a part of\u00a0WHO<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0UNICEF<\/span>\u00a0recommendations, really since 1989. It is disappointing that we aren\u2019t even up to half of babies being put to the breast in the first hour after birth.<\/p>

    We would think that this is something that ought to be fairly easy to improve. We ought to be able to get this taken care of. We\u2019re just frustrated, I think, that we haven\u2019t been able to move this as much as we would\u2019ve liked.<\/p>","excerpt":"Less than half of all mothers globally breastfeed their newborns within an hour of birth, despite international recommendations to do so. Officials are looking at how to draw attention to this issu...","byline":"","author":"Josh Wojcik","author_bio":null,"author_img_url":null,"publisher":"Malnutrition Deeply","type":"post","image":null,"gc_medium_image":"https:\/\/cdn.www.hbhuluo.com\/images\/categories\/featured-category-health.jpg","has_featured_image":false,"img_alt":"","img_caption":"","gc_selection":false,"url":"\/\/www.hbhuluo.com\/article\/why-funding-is-necessary-to-boost-early-breastfeeding","is_gc_original":false,"is_evergreen":false,"footnotes":null,"audio":false,"pdf":null,"video":false,"date_added":"Jan 12, 2023","date_modified":"Jan 12, 2023","categories":[{"id":26,"name":"Health","slug":"health"},{"id":110,"name":"Region","slug":"region"},{"id":122,"name":"Global","slug":"global"},{"id":71229,"name":"Global Health","slug":"global-health"}],"_date_added":1673481600,"_date_modified":1673481600,"_categories":["health","region","global","global-health"],"_tags":[]},{"id":213722,"title":"Explore What Genuine Funder Collaboration Looks Like","summary":"