beautiful BANGLADESH from inside and outside: Bangladesh Holds Top Position in the World Breastfeeding Ranking

Monday, September 6, 2021

Bangladesh Holds Top Position in the World Breastfeeding Ranking | WBTi Report

Breastfeeding offers innumerable health, development, and economic benefits to both the mother and child, and nations. At present, only 41% of infants of 0-6 months are exclusively breastfed globally. It is very important for every country around the world to increase rates of optimal breastfeeding and infant and young child feeding practices. The World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) assists countries to assess and monitor the status of and benchmark progress in implementation of the Global Strategy in a standard way.

The WBTi is based on the WHO's “ Tool for the national assessment of policy and programmes on infant and young child feeding” and `1measures ten parameters of policy and programmes that protect, promote and support optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. It identifies gaps and calls upon governments to bridge these. WBTi maintains a Global Data Repository of the policies and programmes in 98 countries.

Based on the 10 indicators on policy and programmes (on a scale of 100) the WBTi published a report of World Ranking where Bangladesh is at the Top Position with a score of 91.5 (out of 100). WBTi provides objective scoring and colour coding to it’s 10 indicators of policy & programmes. Each indicator is scored out of a maximum of 10 and gets the colour code as Red, Yellow, Blue, and Green in ascending order of performance based on the WBTi guideline.

Bangladesh 91.5
Sri Lanka 91
Afghanistan 89
Cuba 87.5
Gambia 83
Bolivia 81
Turkey 80
Elsalvador 79.5
Niger 77
Kenya 77
Kuwait 77
Malawi 75.5
Bahrain 74.5
Ukraine 74
Mongolia 73.5
Vietnam 73
South Africa 71.5
Brazil 70
Ghana 69.5
Zambia 69.5
China 69.5
Maldives 69.5
Cambodia 69
Mali 68
Philippines 68
Zimbabwe 67.5
Nigeria 67.5
Cameroon 66.5
Argentina 66
Malta 65.5
Croatia 65.5
Panama 65
Pakistan 64.5
Mozambique 64
Georgia 64
Venezuela 64
Jordan 63.5
Dominican Republic 63.5
Nepal 63
United Republic Of Tanzania 61.5
Nicaragua 61.5
Lesotho 61
Burkina Faso 61
Thailand 60.5
Portugal 60.5
Bosnia And Herzegovina 60
Swaziland 59
Uganda 59
Malaysia 58.5
Guatemala 58
Seychelles 57.5
Armenia 57
Costa Rica 57
Gabon 56.5
Republic Of Korea 56.5
Moldova, Republic Of 56.5
Brunei Darussalam 56
Saudi Arabia 56
Ethiopia 55
Fiji 55
Bhutan 55
Egypt 55
Kiribati 53.5
Sierra Leone 53
Italy 52
Indonesia 51.5
United Kingdom 50.5
Macedonia 50.5
Peru 50.5
Colombia 49
Switzerland 48
Belgium 48
France 47.5
Ecuador 47
Sao Tome And Principe 46.5
Uruguay 46.5
Lebanon 46
Mexico 45.5
India 45
Botswana 44.5
Chile 44.5
Honduras 43.5
Morocco 42.5
Belize 41.5
Timorleste 41
United States 40.5
Taiwan 40.5
Austria 40
Singapore 40
Oman 39.5
Lithuania 38.5
Palau 35.5
Spain 35
Paraguay 34.5
Germany 33.5
Australia 25.5
Cape Verde 22.5
Libya 19

Advantages of Breastfeeding:

Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival.
Breastmilk is the ideal food for infants. It is safe, clean and contains antibodies which help protect against many common childhood illnesses.
Continued breastfeeding also pause ovulation and menstruation.
Breastmilk provides all the energy and nutrients that the infant needs for the first months of life
Breastmilk continues to provide up to half or more of a child’s nutritional needs during the second half of the first year, and up to one third during the second year of life.
Breastfed children perform better on intelligence tests, are less likely to be overweight or obese and less prone to diabetes later in life.
Mother who breastfeed have a lower risk for depression and they also have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers.
It saves time and money.