Exclusive breastfeeding is a cornerstone of child survival and child health because it provides essential, irreplaceable nutrition for a child’s growth and development. Nonetheless, just 38% of infants are exclusively breastfed in the first six months of life globally.
Exclusive breastfeeding – defined as the practice of only giving an infant breast-milk for the first 6 months of life (no other food or water) – has the single largest potential impact on child survival of any preventive intervention. It serves as a child’s first immunization – providing protection from respiratory infections, diarrheal disease, and other potentially life-threatening illnesses. Exclusive breastfeeding also has a protective effect against obesity and certain non-communicable diseases later in life. Yet, much remains to be done to make exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life the norm for infant feeding. Suboptimal breastfeeding practices, including non-exclusive breastfeeding, contribute to 11.6% of childhood deaths, equivalent to roughly 800,000 child deaths annually.
In 2012, the World Health Assembly endorsed a global breastfeeding target to increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life up to at least 50% by 2025.