Breast feeding and use of education programme for its improvement: A mini-review

Abstract

Breastfeeding plays a vital role in child survival, growth and development and helps to protect the infants against major causes of childhood morbidity and mortality. It is currently recommended that starting within one hour of birth, infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, and that breastfeeding should continue up to 2 years of age or beyond. Unfortunately, infant feeding practices are still far from optimal; in many parts of the world rates of exclusive breastfeeding are low and many women stop breastfeeding earlier. It has been observed that breastfeeding education is effective in increasing both the rate of breastfeeding initiation and breastfeeding duration. In this review, we will discuss about breastfeeding and role of educational programme on its improvement.