Breastfeeding in the first hour of life protects against neonatal mortality
Authors:
Oddy WH.
Source:
Jornal de Pediatria, 89(2):109-11. doi: 10.1016/j.jped.2013.03.012.
Topic(s):
Breastfeeding Neonatal mortality
Country:
More than one region
Multiple Regions
Published:
MAR 2013
Abstract:
More than four million babies die in the neonatal period
every year, and most of these deaths occur in poorer
countries.1 The longer the delay in breastfeeding initiation,
the greater the chances of neonatal mortality caused by
infections.2 Breastfeeding within the first hour of life has
been shown to reduce high neonatal mortality by 22%.3
During this sensitive period, the protective effect of
breastfeeding delivered by colostrum may be related to a
range of mechanisms that include intestinal colonization by
specific bacteria found in maternal milk, and the ability of
breast milk to produce bioactive immune factors suitable for
the newborn. The Baby-Friendly Initiative (BFI) of the World
Health Organization (WHO) recommends placing babies in
skin-to-skin contact with their mothers immediately after
birth for at least one hour and helping mothers to recognize
when their babies are ready to breastfeed.4 This aid to
mothers in the initiation of breastfeeding corresponds to
the step four of the BFI (Table 1).5
In this edition of the Jornal de Pediatria, Boccolini
et al. report on an ecological study using data from 67
countries obtained from the Demographic and Health
Surveys (DHS) up to 2008 to assess the correlation
between breastfeeding in the first hour of life and rates
of neonatal mortality.6