Jhapa Sees Low Exclusive Breastfeeding Rate

Jhapa. The number of mothers practicing exclusive breastfeeding in Jhapa is relatively low. According to the Health Office, out of 13,239 women who gave birth in the fiscal year 2082/83, only 8,899, or 67 percent, exclusively breastfed their infants for the first six months. The remaining 33 percent of infants were deprived of exclusive breastfeeding.

At a press conference organized in Birtamoḍ on the occasion of World Breastfeeding Week on Monday, the office's breastfeeding counselor Sanskriti Subedi Hamal stated that the increasing number of working mothers, lack of breastfeeding or milk collection rooms in workplaces, insufficient maternity leave, misleading propaganda about powdered milk, and lack of necessary support for new mothers due to small family size are the main reasons for the decline in the breastfeeding rate.