Karnali, Aug 9: Forty per cent of women in Karnali province are found breastfeeding their infants within one hour of their birth.
The Health Service Directorate said, quoting the Multi-Indicator Cluster Survey-2019, that 40 per cent out of the 62 per cent of women who deliver babies at health facilities breastfeed the babies within an hour of their birth.
Similarly, 68 per cent of new
mothers breastfeed their child for up to six months, which is more than the
national average (62 per cent). The Karnali and Madhes provinces have overtaken
the rest of the provinces when it comes to breastfeeding the child for up to six
months.
In Nepal, 62 per cent of women breastfeed their child up to six months from birth.
Province Health Director Dr Rabin
Khadka shared that the Multi-Indicator Cluster Survey-2019 showed the number of
women breastfeeding their infant within one hour of birth is more in Karnali
than in Bagmati and Gandaki provinces.
He added that the Karnali Health
Service Act has guaranteed the right of the child to be breastfed and also
made provisions for regulating the sale and distribution of baby food that
replaces mother's milk.
MICS shows that 29 per cent of women
in Gandaki and 30 per cent in Bagmati province breastfeed their infant within
an hour of birth.
The number of mothers who continue
breastfeeding their child up to two years from birth is 89 per cent. The
number of mothers who bottle feed milk to their child is 12 per cent in
Karnali.
Community nursing officer at the
Public Health Section of the Ministry of Social Development, Kabita Khattri
said breastfeeding done within an hour of childbirth reduces the infant
mortality rate by 33 per cent. (RSS)