“The benefits of breastfeeding not just to nutrition but also to survival and long-term outcomes are so overwhelming... You want to double triple duty nutrition interventions and if there is one nutrition intervention that is a guarantee to impacting long-term optimal growth and prevention of obesity and overweight, that is breastfeeding. So, I think breastfeeding needs to be supported a hundred percent, particularly exclusive breastfeeding early with the interventions that are important to help mothers undertake.” Said Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta as part of the launch event of The Lancet 2021 Series on Maternal & Child Undernutrition Progress. Check out the event recording here.

New evidence laid out by Emily Keats and colleagues1 shows that promotion of exclusive and continued breastfeeding, combined with other direct nutrition interventions remains essential to overcome maternal and child malnutrition.

The ‘Stronger With Breastmilk Only’ initiative calls for support at all levels from government leaders and policy makers, programme managers, businesses, health workers, communities and families to support breastfeeding – one of the smartest investments a country can make.

1 Emily C Keats, Jai K Das, Rehana A Salam, Zohra S Lassi, Aamer Imdad, Robert E Black, et al. Effective interventions to address maternal and child malnutrition: un update of the evidence. Lancet 2021; published online March 7. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30274-1.