Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

PUBLIC HEALTH

Local variations in exclusive breastfeeding rates in Africa

Nature Medicine volume 25, pages 1190–1191 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Large-scale analysis of 49 countries in Africa shows improvements in the prevalence of babies under 6 months of age being fed only breast milk, but there are large disparities in progress across and within countries.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: EBF projections and indications in Africa.

References

  1. Black, R. E. et al. Lancet 382, 427–451 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Black, R. E. et al. Lancet 371, 243–260 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Global Nutrition Targets 2025: Breastfeeding Policy Brief. WHO/NMH/NHD/14.7 (WHO & UNICEF, 2014).

  4. Bhattacharjee, N.V. et al. Nat. Med. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0525-0 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Country Implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes: Status Report 2011 (WHO, 2011).

  6. Odeny, B. M. et al. Breastfeed. Med. 11, 252–258 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Nieuwoudt, S. & Manderson, L. Int. Breastfeed. J. 13, 20 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative: Revised, Updated and Expanded for Integrated Care (WHO, 2009).

  9. Rollins, N. C. et al. Lancet 387, 491–504 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Victora, C. G. et al. Lancet 387, 475–490 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Breastfeeding Scorecard 2018: Enabling Women to Breastfeed Through Better Policies and Programmes (WHO & UNICEF Global, 2018).

  12. Sinha, B. et al. J. Nutr. 147, 2179S (2017).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Univeristy of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa

    Penelope Reimers & Anna Coutsoudis

  2. School of Physiology, Nutrition and Consumer Science, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

    Chantell Witten

Authors
  1. Penelope Reimers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Chantell Witten
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Anna Coutsoudis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Penelope Reimers.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Reimers, P., Witten, C. & Coutsoudis, A. Local variations in exclusive breastfeeding rates in Africa. Nat Med 25, 1190–1191 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0532-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0532-1

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing