Best practices for infant feeding – Breastfeeding is vital for the healthy development of infants and has a significant impact on maternal health. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recommend:

• Initiate breastfeeding within the first hour after birth
• Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life is the best way to feed a newborn baby. Exclusive breastfeeding – meaning that the baby only eats breast milk and does not eat or drink any other food, not even water
• Breastfeed your baby on demand.
• Do not use bottles, nipples or pacifiers.
• After 6 months, babies need to be given complementary foods and continue to breastfeed until 2 years of age or beyond.

Breastfeeding is a smart investment – ​​in children's health and national prosperity

• Improving the proportion of children who are exclusively breastfed in the first 6 months of life could save the lives of 520,000 children over the next 10 years. [i]
  
• Improving breastfeeding could save the lives of 2,011 Vietnamese children each year. 1
• In low- and middle-income countries, higher rates of exclusive breastfeeding can improve children's life chances and cognitive abilities – making them more likely to work and earn better incomes as adults.
• From there, these countries could see their economies grow by $300 billion by 2025. 2
• In Vietnam, improving breastfeeding could save US$23.36 million in health system spending each year due to reduced treatment for child-related illnesses. 1
• In Vietnam, improving breastfeeding could avoid the loss of approximately US$70,400,000 in annual wages by improving children's learning ability. 1
• Every US dollar invested in breastfeeding returns approximately US$35 to the national economy. [ii]

Breastfeeding gives every baby a fair start

• Early breastfeeding is associated with lower infant mortality rates. [iii]
  
• When breastfeeding, a mother passes her immune system to her baby, helping to create a protective umbrella for the baby as his or her immune system develops. 4
• Children under 6 months of age who are exclusively breastfed for longer periods have fewer infectious diseases and fewer deaths than children who are breastfed for shorter periods or not breastfed at all. [iv ]
  
• Children who are breastfed for longer periods of time also have a lower risk of becoming overweight or obese. 5
• Breastfeeding contributes to increasing children's IQ by 3 to 4 points .
• Supporting mothers to breastfeed can help halve the incidence of diarrhoea and reduce respiratory infections by a third. 5

Breastfeeding is not just a woman's job, but also depends on support from family, community, health professionals, employers and governments.

• Health care professionals can influence breastfeeding practices at key times, yet many lack the knowledge and skills to support women who want to breastfeed.[v ]
  
• Community-based interventions such as group counseling and education can increase early breastfeeding by 86%. 6
• Work is one of the main barriers to breastfeeding and contributes to mothers' decisions to wean early. 6
• One study on breastfeeding found that interventions such as maternity leave and workplace support increased breastfeeding rates by 30%. [vi]
  
• In low- and middle-income countries, annual spending on breastfeeding promotion is only US$85 million (for donors) and about US$250 million (for governments). [vii]
  
• The sample cost of a nationwide breastfeeding strategy in Vietnam is US$30.13 million, including the cost of interventions and social security costs ensuring improved maternity leave benefits. 1