Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly (Samoa)

Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly Study

Breastfeeding is a proven, natural behavior that gives children the healthiest start in life as well as a promising future. The 2016 Lancet series on breastfeeding estimated that 823,000 children’s lives would be saved annually in 75 high-mortality Low and Middle Income Countries if breastfeeding was scaled up to near universal levels. This is 13.8% of the deaths of children under 2 years of age.

Despite all of the benefits breastfeeding provides, prevalence remains low globally, only 37% of children under six months of age in low- and middle-income countries are breastfed exclusively. In collaboration with the Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly initiative at the Yale School of Public Health, the Samoan Ministry of Health are developing data-driven policy to successfully scale up Samoan breastfeeding programs.

Timeline: May 2017 to February 2018

Principal Investigators: Christina Soti-Ulberg & Leausa Dr. Take Naseri (Samoa Ministry of Health), Rafael Perez-Escamilla & Nicola Hawley

Funding Source: Family Larsson Rosenquist Foundation, to Rafael Perez Escamilla