The 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) reveals that 53% of infants aged 0 to 5 months in Ghana were exclusively breastfed, indicating that 47.4 per cent of babies are not.
The survey highlights that the rate of exclusive breastfeeding among children under 6 months has seen minimal change over the past 20 years, with only a slight increase of 0.8 percentage points from 46.6% in 2003 to 47.4% in 2022.
Additionally, it was found that 41.8% of children born in the two years prior to the 2022 GDHS did not start breastfeeding within the first hour of life.
“In three regions, more than half of the children did not start breastfeeding within the first hour of life: Greater Accra (56.2%), Ahafo (56.1%), and Eastern (51.7%). The region with the lowest percentage that did not initiate breastfeeding within the first hour was Bono East (29.4%) followed by Volta (31.6%),” a part of the survey released by the Ghana Statistical Service in commemoration of World Breastfeeding Week further read.
World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated annually in the first week of August to underscore the importance of breastfeeding and promote greater access to breastfeeding support.
The theme for 2024 is “Closing the Gap: Breastfeeding Support for All.”