Call to regularly update breastfeeding indicators in Bahrain

TDT | Manama                   

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com  

Staff Reporter

A group of researchers is urging many countries including the Kingdom of Bahrain to update breastfeeding indicators as it is important to protect and evaluate the progress of breastfeeding promotion efforts.

According to researchers associated with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the last time Bahrain updated its breastfeeding indicators was in the year 2002 and since then there have been no surveys or infant data studies related to this.

The Kingdom’s neighbours including Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia last carried out a survey on breastfeeding indicators in the year 2017, offering valuable insights into the matter, which helps in devising the right strategies.

“Seventy-one percent of the countries had updated their indicators since 2015, and 16 per cent have collected breastfeeding indicators for more than two decades. Updates were conducted annually, every three or five to nine years.

The other 21 countries had no regular updates, or these had been discontinued,” the researchers said. “Breastfeeding rates were estimated from mothers of children of different age groups: newborns followed up to eight weeks after birth, children up to 12 to 15 months, children under 24 months or children under three to under six years.

In eight surveys, the population sampled was women who had a child in the prior three to five years,” they added. According to International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), Bahrain has made progress regarding Child Health over the past years, as neonatal, infant and under-five mortality rates steadily declined.

“This is a consequence of the ministry of health’s priority: to provide the maximum levels of health care including primary health care, especially for children below six years of age. “Nevertheless, the lack of data on breastfeeding remains concerning and the few data available show an extremely low rate of exclusive breastfeeding under six months.

It remains complicated to draw conclusions on recent progress regarding early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding under six months and continued breastfeeding at two years.” On the flip side, the network also praised the Kingdom’s authorities for taking the right measures.

“In an effort to improve breastfeeding rates in the 1990s, the Bahraini government developed a policy to support breastfeeding. A decree was issued, which concerns the control of marketing and promotion of breastmilk substitutes. This decree was then followed in 1996 by ministerial order No. 5 which established a national committee for breastfeeding.

The committee was re-organised in 2008 and 2011, but it remains unclear what its mandate is and whether it meets regularly,” the network observed.