Sri Lanka has declared a National Breastfeeding Week running from Saturday (1) to August 7, timed to coincide with the global World Breastfeeding Week observance.
The announcement was made by Dr Hiranya Jayawickrama, a Community Physician attached to the Child Nutrition Unit of the Family Health Bureau, at a news conference held at the Health Promotion Bureau.
Dr Jayawickrama said the primary objective of the week is to raise public awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding, for both babies and mothers.
Health officials at the briefing advised that babies should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, saying breast milk provides complete nutrition, strengthens immunity and supports healthy growth. They said breastfeeding also helps protect children against infections and certain diseases, while benefiting the mother’s own health and strengthening the bond between mother and child.
World Breastfeeding Week is marked in the first week of August each year in more than 170 countries, coordinated internationally by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action and supported by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The Family Health Bureau, which sits under the Ministry of Health, is the state body responsible for maternal and child health programming in Sri Lanka, and the Child Nutrition Unit runs the national breastfeeding promotion effort.
Sri Lanka has long been cited internationally as a strong performer on breastfeeding indicators, with high rates of early initiation and of exclusive breastfeeding through the first six months — outcomes attributed to the country’s network of public health midwives and to its long-standing restrictions on the marketing of breast-milk substitutes.
The Health Ministry did not announce the specific programme of events for the week at the briefing.
