Too many mothers and families around the world still lack access to services and interventions that enable and support breastfeeding.

Yet breastfeeding is one of the simplest and most powerful ways to protect a child’s health. It provides infants and young children with essential nutrition, increases immunity, helps protect against serious illness, and supports cognitive development.

For mothers, breastfeeding brings important health benefits too, helping reduce the risk of noncommunicable diseases such as breast and ovarian cancers, and type 2 diabetes.

Encouragingly, breastfeeding rates around the world are going up. Exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months rose from around 37 per cent in 2012 to over 47 per cent today. In the past five years, the prevalence of breastfeeding up to two years of age rose from 38 per cent to 50 per cent.  

These gains show that sustained investments in policies and programmes for mothers and families are working. Yet progress remains uneven, with many countries lagging behind global targets. Coverage of services supporting breastfeeding remains low, policies are inconsistently enforced, and service quality is often inadequate, especially in low-income, fragile, and humanitarian settings.