Good News from The World Health Organization
Andrea Eastman
From: LEAVEN, Vol. 37 No. 4, August-September 2001, p. 91.
After years of debate about the
optimal length of exclusive breastfeeding, on April 2, 2001 the World Health
Organization (WHO) issued a report from its Expert Technical Consultation.
A systematic review of the
scientific literature helped the expert consultation identify studies
comparing exclusive breastfeeding for four to six months versus exclusive
breastfeeding for six months. The review considered specific factors,
including infant growth, infant iron status, morbidity (illness), atopic
disease (allergy), motor development, postpartum weight loss, and amenorrhea.
The WHO review was based on two small controlled studies and seventeen
observational trials.
By carefully examining these
studies, the expert consultation found that exclusive breastfeeding
for six months can help protect a baby from gastrointestinal infection
and from diarrhea. Exclusive breastfeeding for six months can also help
prolong the length of lactational amenorrhea in mothers, and can help
mothers lose more weight postpartum.
In light of the findings
of this review, the WHO expert consultation has released new recommendations
for practice. The WHO now recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six
months. Recognizing the need for complementary feeding at six months
of age, the WHO recommends the introduction of nutritionally adequate,
safe, and appropriate complementary foods at that point in development,
in conjunction with continued breastfeeding.
The effects of these new
recommendations for practice from the World Health Organization are
already being felt. This WHO systematic review was presented to the
54th World Health Assembly in May 2001. On May 17, 2001, the World Health
Assembly (WHA) passed a resolution recommending that infants be exclusively
breastfed for six months, in spite of tremendous pressure to the contrary
from the baby food industry. Paragraph 2.(4) of the resolution reads
"The Fifty-fourth World Health Assembly ... urges member states to strengthen
activities and develop new approaches to protect, promote and support
exclusive breastfeeding for six months as a global public health recommendation,
taking into account the findings of the WHO expert consultation on optimal
duration of exclusive breastfeeding, and to provide safe and appropriate
complementary foods, with continued breastfeeding for up to two years
of age or beyond, emphasizing channeIs of social dissemination of these
concepts in order to lead communities to adhere to these practices."
References
The press release from the WHO
is available online at
www.who.int/inf-pr-2001/en/note2001-07.html
WHA Resolution 54.2 is available online at
www.who.int/gb/EB_WHA/PDF/WHA54/ea54r2.pdf
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:32:26 UTC 2007.
