For the month of August, Mozambique and health partners are celebrating World Breastfeeding week. This year’s theme focuses on the need to provide support to mothers for initiating, establishing and maintaining the best breastfeeding practices.

Breastfeeding as the primary source of nutrition for infants plays an important role in the nutritional status of children and in the defense against disease and child mortality. WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding the first six months of life initiated within the first hour after birth, and continued breastfeeding with the addition of nutritious complementary foods for up to two years or beyond.

In Mozambique, almost half of all children are not exclusively breastfed the first six months of their lives. The misperception that the first milk (the colostrum) is not good for the baby, the belief that breast milk alone is not enough to feed a child up to 6 months, and the lack of appropriate counselling at health facility and community level are some of the factors that inhibit the adoption of appropriate infant feeding practices.

Although exclusive breastfeeding up to six months of age increased from 30% in 2003 to 43% in 2011[1] in Mozambique, it is still below the global target, which aims to reach at least 50% % by 2025.

Mothers in Mozambique face several challenges in breastfeeding their infants as they are often dominated by other family members, who might have different cultural or spiritual beliefs. This impairs the decision making power of the mothers and requires strengthened community health services promoting appropriate infant feeding practices.

To address the various misperceptions about breastfeeding, the Ministry of Health and its partners has organized various informative and health promoting events. These include mass media campaigns, and school competitions of drawings and poems at a Gastronomy Fair taking place in Parque dos Continuadores in Maputo the last week of August 2013.