Nearly half of babies aged 0 to 5 months not exclusively breastfed – Survey

A staggering 47.4 percent of children aged 0 to 5 months in Ghana were not exclusively breastfed according to the 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS).

The Demographic and Health Survey also found that the percentage of children under 6 months not being exclusively breastfed has stagnated over the past two decades: increasing marginally by 0.8 percentage points between 2003 (46.6%) and 2022.

Another intriguing finding of the survey is that two in every five (41.8%) children born in the two years preceding the 2022 GDHS did not start breastfeeding within the first hour of life.

“In three regions, more than half of the children did not start breastfeeding within the first hour of life: Greater Accra (56.2%), Ahafo (56.1%), and Eastern (51.7%). The region with the lowest percentage that did not initiate breastfeeding within the first hour was Bono East (29.4%) followed by Volta (31.6%),” a part of the survey released by the Ghana Statistical Service in commemoration of World Breastfeeding Week further read.

World Breastfeeding Week is commemorated annually during the first week in August to highlight the importance of breastfeeding and to promote access to breastfeeding support and opportunities.

The theme for 2024 is “Closing the Gap: Breastfeeding Support for All.”

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