Dept agrees to promote breastfeeding

The Department of Health and the Thai Breastfeeding Center Foundation (TBCF) have come up with a plan to increase the number of breastfed newborns after statistics showed the number of breastfed babies in the country had decreased to around 14%.

Dr Suwanchai Wattanayingcharoenchai, director-general of the Department of Health, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to run a breastfeeding promotional campaign with the centre yesterday.

According to Dr Suwanchai, the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that babies be breastfed for the first six months of their lives before supplementing with food until they reach their second year of life.

However, citing the survey conducted in 2019 by the National Statistical Office, 34% of newborns got breastfed in their first hour, while 14% of them were breastfed in their first six months.

Following the results of the…