The proportion of babies in Bangladesh receiving breast milk as recommended has fallen to a worrying level. Only 55 per cent of babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months after birth, while 45 per cent do not receive only breast milk during this period. Hospitals are also keeping breast-milk substitutes and other infant foods in violation of the law.
Child health experts disclosed the information at a seminar held at the Institute of Public Health Nutrition on Thursday to mark World Breastfeeding Week 2026. The seminar was jointly organised by the Bangladesh Breastfeeding Foundation (BBF) and the Health Education and Family Welfare Division of the Ministry of Health.
Public health experts, paediatricians, obstetricians, researchers, and teachers and students of nutrition participated in the event. World Breastfeeding Week is observed every year from 1 to 7 August.
Presenting the findings of a recent BBF monitoring exercise, speakers said a number of initiatives had previously been taken at healthcare facilities to promote breastfeeding, including breastfeeding corners. Many of those initiatives have now become inactive.
The importance of breastfeeding has come into renewed focus following the recent measles outbreak in the country. Physician said many children who contracted measles had either not been given colostrum immediately after birth or had not been exclusively breastfed during their first six months. Child health experts said breast milk works like a vaccine.
Khurshid Jahan, director of the BBF and moderator of the event, said in her presentation that the rate of breastfeeding in Bangladesh had declined. Currently, 55 per cent of babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months after birth. The target is to raise the rate to 60 per cent by 2030.
She said the decline in breastfeeding was not the mothers’ failure. Rather, it was the result of a combination of shortcomings in maternity protection, including inadequate services at hospitals and clinics, insufficient care following caesarean deliveries, and lack of maternity leave.
The seminar noted that Bangladesh had performed relatively well in breastfeeding in the recent past. In 2020, Bangladesh ranked first among developing countries. It currently ranks sixth. In 2017–18, 65 per cent of babies in Bangladesh were exclusively breastfed up to six months of age, compared with 55 per cent now.
This year’s World Breastfeeding Week theme is “Breastfeeding at the Beginning of Life: Accelerate Sustainable Support.” Speaking on the theme, noted nutritionist and seminar chair Professor SK Roy said four pillars or conditions must be met to make breastfeeding sustainable.
These are providing information to create a lasting and effective environment for breastfeeding; stimulating, activating and strengthening breastfeeding support programmes; involving mothers in breastfeeding facilities and support services; and coordinating the activities of all government ministries and departments.
SK Roy said mechanisms are in place to measure progress in these areas through indicators. The data show that Bangladesh is performing worse than it did in the past, he said.
“Whatever can be measured can be improved. Therefore, regular monitoring and accountability are essential,” the nutritionist said.
The seminar noted that although Bangladesh has laws on breastfeeding, they are not being enforced. More than 1,000 public and private hospitals had previously been designated as “baby-friendly hospitals,” but many have lost that status.
More than 100 health workers have received specialised training on breastfeeding, but they are not being utilised, speakers said. The media, too, has fallen behind in promoting breastfeeding.
Bangladesh has the Breast-Milk Substitutes, Infant Foods, Commercially Manufactured Complementary Foods and the Use of Breast-Milk Substitutes Act, 2013, and its regulations, issued in 2017, to protect, promote and support breastfeeding. The purpose of the law and regulations is to regulate unethical marketing of breast-milk substitutes and related products and, ultimately, to protect the health and nutrition of mothers and children.
The current situation
The BBF has been working since 1989 on breastfeeding protection, maternal and child nutrition, appropriate complementary feeding for children and adolescent nutrition.
Between April and June 2026, the BBF monitored 12 healthcare facilities, 260 medicine shops in 40 markets and 48 online platforms. Professor Sufia Khatun, vice-chairperson of the BBF, presented the findings at the seminar.
She said the monitoring found that breast-milk substitutes were openly displayed in all 100 per cent of the shops monitored, in violation of the law. About 5 per cent of the products found in those shops were either unregistered or had incomplete registration.
All 48 online platforms promoted breast-milk substitutes under the guise of providing medical or nutritional advice, she said.
Companies were also promoting breast-milk substitutes through sub-assistant community medical officers, or SACMOs, at Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) vaccination centres and during antenatal care services.
During the same period, the BBF monitored 12 baby-friendly hospitals and interviewed 72 doctors and nurses. Presenting the findings, Sufia Khatun said all 12, or 100 per cent, of the hospitals either did not have a functional “Baby-Friendly Hospital Committee” or had no such committee at all.
None of the hospitals had an effective breastfeeding corner, she said. Promotion of infant foods and violations of the law were found at almost all the hospitals. There was no accountability mechanism at any of the facilities.
Criticising the roles of the government, professionals and civil society, Sufia Khatun said the most troubling issue was that the very people whom parents regard almost like gods and whose advice they readily follow were promoting infant foods.
“Instead of teaching mothers how to breastfeed, they are handing them cans of infant formula,” she said.
Director General of the Directorate General of Family Planning Jinnat Rehana, the chief guest at the event, said mothers must not be blamed under any circumstances and should instead be provided with a supportive environment.
Samina Ahmed, chairman of the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, said school curricula should contain at least a paragraph on the benefits of breastfeeding.
Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, acting director general of the Bangladesh National Nutrition Council, said the National Nutrition Policy was being updated, with special emphasis being placed on child nutrition.
Speaking at the seminar, Rowshan Jahan Akhtar, deputy director of the Institute of Public Health Nutrition, said the World Health Organization and the Institute of Public Health Nutrition were working together to centrally monitor whether the law was being followed.
She said new breastfeeding corners had recently been established in 140 government hospitals.
Director of the National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM) Professor Nasrin Sultana and Professor Iffat Ara Shamsad, former head of the Department of Paediatrics at Dhaka Medical College, also spoke at the seminar.
Why Is Breast Milk Important?
Several speakers at the event presented data on the benefits of breast milk.
They said breast milk provides all the food and water a baby needs during the first six months of life. From six to 12 months, it meets half or more of a child’s energy needs, while from 12 to 24 months it provides one-third of the child’s energy requirements.
BBF Secretary General Professor Sania Tasnim said breast milk is not merely food; it is a living biological system. It helps establish the foundation of a child’s gut and immune system.
Giving a newborn colostrum within the first hour after birth reduces the risk of neonatal death by 31 per cent, she said.
Children who are regularly breastfed have a 15-fold lower risk of dying from diarrhoea, an 11-fold lower risk of dying from pneumonia and a 14-fold lower risk of dying from malnutrition, she added.