PAKISTAN: Infant mortality

Pakistan has the eighth highest newborn mortality rate in the world and the third highest under-five mortality rate in Asia.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Int'l Desk
Source & Credit: Dawn.com | Editorial

The launch by the federal health ministry of the rules and regulations for enforcing the Protection of Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition Ordinance 2002 is a milestone in the country’s attempts to reduce its startlingly high infant mortality rate.

Pakistan has the eighth highest newborn mortality rate in the world and the third highest under-five mortality rate in Asia. Health experts, who associate artificial feeding in infants with higher risks of gastrointestinal and lower respiratory tract infections, say that initiating exclusive breastfeeding within the first hour of birth and continuing it for six months could reduce the neonatal mortality rate by 22 per cent.

Yet despite the 2002 national breastfeeding ordinance, which adopted the 1981 International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes to restrict the promotion of infant formula feeding, we have one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in South Asia — just 37 per cent.

The reasons for this are poor awareness of the breastfeeding ordinance among our health workers and the continual violation of the code on the marketing of formula milk. It took 21 years after the international code on breastfeeding was formulated for us to have a national breastfeeding law. It has taken another eight to formulate the rules and regulations for enforcing the 2002 ordinance.

Along with breastfeeding two other concerns must also be addressed to reduce infant mortality and improve child health: vaccination against preventable diseases and delivery-related causes of infant death including asphyxia and sepsis. The Expanded Program of Immunization must improve its coverage and introduce new vaccines.

Meanwhile, better access to obstetric and neonatal care will encourage families to seek such services. Needless to say, upgrading these facilities would include increasing the number of skilled birth attendants trained in emergency measures and capable of giving guidance to mothers about breastfeeding their newborn within the first hour of birth.

Read original editorial here: Infant mortality