Improved Breastfeeding Support May Prevent 400,000 Infant Deaths Yearly
Pecohub United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have called on countries to strengthen breastfeeding policies and invest in proven interventions to improve the survival and well-being of mothers and children.
It also said scaling up breastfeeding support could prevent nearly 400,000 child deaths annually.
The call was contained in a joint statement by the agencies ahead of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week, where they emphasised that expanding breastfeeding interventions could prevent about 140,000 maternal deaths each year while delivering significant economic benefits
The 2026 World Breastfeeding Week, themed, “Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works,” urged countries to strengthen health systems to provide quality breastfeeding support for mothers and newborns, expand community-based counselling and peer support programmes, fully implement and enforce the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, invest in paid maternity leave and supportive workplace policies, integrate breastfeeding interventions into antenatal, perinatal and postnatal healthcare services, and sustain breastfeeding support in humanitarian and fragile settings.
UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell, described breastfeeding as one of the simplest and most effective ways to protect children’s health, noting that it provides infants and young children with essential nutrition, strengthens immunity, protects against serious illnesses and supports cognitive development.
She added that breastfeeding also benefits mothers by helping to reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases such as breast and ovarian cancers and type 2 diabetes.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, attributed the gains to sustained investments in policies and programmes that support mothers and families, but cautioned that progress remains uneven, with many countries still lagging behind global breastfeeding targets.
The statement noted that coverage of services supporting breastfeeding remains low, policies were inconsistently enforced, and the quality of services was often inadequate, particularly in low-income, fragile and humanitarian settings.
