Breastfeeding helps reduce 31pc infant mortality rate

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City Desk :
A study paper suggested that breastfeeding to infants within one-hour after their birth can reduce 31 percent infant mortality rate while 13 percent child mortality rate can be reduced through breastfeeding till six-month-old.
“The habit of feeding homemade food to children after six-month-old side by side with breastfeeding can reduce six percent child mortality rate,” Bangladesh Breastfeeding Foundation Chairperson Dr SK Roy said on Thursday while presenting the paper at a discussion on “role of member of parliament to campaign on breastfeeding” at a city hotel.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim addressed it as chief guest with Deputy Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad Advocate Fazle Rabbi Miah in the chair.
State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Md. Mashiur Rahman Ranga and former health minister Dr AFM Ruhal Haque joined the function, among others.
According to the study, intellectual development of the babies who are breastfed till specific period is 2.6 times better than those who are not.
It said the rate of breastfeeding within one-hour after birth was 24 percent in 2004 while it stood at 45 percent in 2007, 47 percent in 2011 and 57 percent in 2014.
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