As Kenya marks World breastfeeding Week 1-7 August 2023, nutrition and breastfeeding experts are worried that Kenya might miss its targets.
This comes in the backdrop of a one percentage drop of exclusive breastfeeding rates from 61 percent in 2014 down to 60 percent in 2022 according to the recent Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) data.
While speaking to journalists at a Media Sensitization Event on World Breastfeeding Week 2023, Stephen Mwangi, Nutrition International’s Senior Programme Officer said that the country is most likely not to meet its sustainable development goal (SDG) target on covering over 70 percent of its population to exclusive breastfeeding having recorded a dip in exclusive breast-feeding rates and substantial increase in bottle-feeding.
Mwangi says that the drop poses a risk for children who are not exclusively breastfeed since they are given inadequate diet which puts them at higher risk of contracting a number of diseases most significantly, diarrhea and pneumonia.
“If many infants in Kenya don’t benefit from exclusive breastfeeding, we are posed to lose too much in terms of neonatal mortality rates.”
Exclusively breastfeeding is a healthy, natural way for women to nourish their newborns. It’s good for the mother-infant relationship and cheaper than formula, the experts noted.
According to expert’s barrier to breastfeeding maybe attributed to widespread promotion of breast-milk substitutes and need to return to work therefor forcing them to find alternatives to breastfeeding.
Laura Kiige, Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF Kenya said that the drop in coverage of exclusive breast feeding is not promising as it put infants at higher risk of contracting a number of diseases.
“If we don’t reach our targets, we are disadvantaging children who have not exclusively breastfed by giving them inadequate diet therefore giving them room to suffer malnutrition.”
According to KDHS data bottle feeding has also increased from 22 percent in 2014 to 34 in 2022.
Laura says that babies who are bottle-fed might suffer from what is called nipple confusion with most of them finding difficulty switching between a bottle and a breast.
She adds that exclusively breastfeeding is healthy as it contains antibodies that can help protect against common childhood illnesses.
While According to Veronica Kirogo, Director of Nutrition and Dietetics Services, State Department for Public Health and Professional Standards, the low rates of child breastfeeding noted in the Kenya according to 2022 KDHS have not been systematically analyzed to pin point its determinants.
However, she attributes the drop to many obstacles women face due to a lack of knowledge about benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, lack of sufficient support from workplaces, key family members, learning institutions and communities even with existence of essential legal and policy frameworks in Kenya that provides an enabling environment for breastfeeding in the workplace policies.
“The Ministry of Health recognizes breastfeeding as an integral part of sustainable development. In alignment with global recommendations to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding, Kenya has implemented essential legal and policy frameworks, providing an enabling environment for breastfeeding in the workplace.”
This year’s World Breastfeeding Week theme is, “Let’s make breastfeeding at work, work” emphasizing the need for greater breastfeeding support across all workplaces to sustain and improve progress on breastfeeding rates.
Policy gaps
Veronica urged stakeholders to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems that track the progress of policies towards achieving breastfeeding targets.
She notes that provision of workplace breastfeeding rooms and nursing breaks are low-cost interventions that can improve breastfeeding outcomes.
To ensure that every demographic is catered for by the existing policies legislatures should work on a clear policy that envisages mandatory provision of breastfeeding facilities amongst school going women of reproductive age who might have given birth to children while still going to school.
Teenage pregnancy is high in counties across the country with almost 2 out of 10 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 reported to be pregnant or have had a child already this reality points to a gap in policy that need to be addressed.
