As the 2010 World Breastfeeding Week began last Sunday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared breastfeeding as the key to saving children’s lives.

The organisation also released 10 steps to successful breastfeeding.

The World Breastfeeding Week, is celebrated from 1 to 7 August in more than 170 countries.

WHO further reiterated  its call on health facilities and health workers to implement  10 steps to help mothers breastfeed successfully and improve their babies’ health and chances of survival.

According to WHO, “Breast milk is the ideal food for newborns and infants. It is safe, gives babies the nutrients they need for healthy development and contains antibodies that help protect infants from common childhood illnesses.

While exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life is on the rise in many countries, further improvement of breastfeeding rates is critical to improve the nutrition and the health of infants and children. For a variety of reasons, including the lack of breastfeeding counselling, still too many mothers stop exclusive breastfeeding within a few weeks after delivery.

In the words of  WHO’s Director of WHO’s Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development, Dr Elizabeth Mason “It is estimated that around 35 percent of infants aged 0 to 6 months are exclusively breastfed in the world today”

She poisted that if all babies and young children were breastfed exclusively for their first six months of life and then given nutritious complementary food with continued breastfeeding up to two years of age, the lives of an additional 1.5 million children under five would be saved every year.

The “10 steps to successful breastfeeding” were developed by WHO and UNICEF to ensure maternity services are providing the right start for every infant and the necessary support for mothers to breastfeed. Today this check-list is used by hospitals in more than 150 countries.

The 10 steps for health facilities to take towards ensuring successful breastfeeding are as follows:

* Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.

* Train all health care staff in the skills necessary to implement this policy.

* Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.

 *  Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within half an hour of birth.

 *  Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation even if they should be separated from their infants.

   *  Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breast milk unless medically indicated.

  *  Practise “rooming in” – allowing mothers and infants to remain together – 24 hours a day.

   *  Encourage breastfeeding on demand  whenever the baby is hungry.

  *  Give no artificial teats or pacifiers (also called dummies or soothers) to breastfeeding infants.

  * Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic.

Malnutrition is responsible for one-third of the 8.8 million deaths annually among children under five. It can be a direct cause of death but is also the most important single risk factor for disease in young children. Over two thirds of these deaths, which are often associated with inappropriate feeding practices such as bottle-feeding or untimely and inadequate complementary foods, occur during the first months of life.

Also, WHO Coordinator of the Nutrition in the Life Course unit, Randa Saadeh said “Increasing breastfeeding rates is a key component of the plan to improve infant and young child nutrition,”

Saadeh stated that a renewed effort to make more hospitals ‘baby friendly’ has the potential to give millions more babies a healthy start in life.