Breastfeeding Bonds, Thriving Communities: Walking Together for a Healthy Start in Life

The wide branches of a tree spread like an umbrella, casting cool shade over a circle of young families gathered in Kigumo, Murang’a County. Mothers cradle their babies close, while fathers sit beside them, listening attentively to the nutrition session. The youngest infants rest peacefully on their mothers’ laps, while older babies toddle around the circle under their parents' watchful eyes.

This is a purposeful, gently guided conversation, full of shared learning. Leah Wanjiru, a mother of three, speaks with quiet pride, recalling how her baby latched and began breastfeeding immediately, a moment that set the tone for her child’s healthy start in life. She says her husband, Peter Kuria, has been a strong support for her, helping her from their first child to their current seven-month-old. Wairimu remembers the sleepless early days and how her husband helped her take turns caring for the baby during the baby’s first two weeks of life.

“The role of a man is more than just providing. When we learn about healthy eating during pregnancy, breastfeeding only for six months, and then adding other foods, we share this information and remind each other every day,” said Kuria. He encourages other men to take an active role in child nutrition.

Another mother, Esther Wanjiru, shares her struggle to choose the right foods to help her milk production. The Community Health Promoter, Teresia Kago, guides this support group, creating a sense of community and space where mothers share practical advice and encouragement on early childcare, including breastfeeding.

Kago leads monthly breastfeeding support groups in Irigu-ini village, where mothers and fathers discuss pertinent breastfeeding topics and support one another to ensure that every child has a strong, healthy start in life.

“Breastfeeding gives a child the best start in life. — and when fathers stand beside mothers with support, encouragement, and care, that foundation grows even stronger. In mother-to-mother support groups, parents find strength in each other — celebrating joys, confronting challenges, and learning how to balance childcare with personal well-being, while promoting recovery, nutrition, and mental health,” said Kago.

And as Kenya marked the beginning of World Breastfeeding Week at the national event hosted by the County Government of Murang’a and the Ministry of Health, this year’s theme called for concerted efforts to support evidence-based breastfeeding practices at the household, community, and national levels to give every child a healthy start in life.

Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary Mary Muthoni called for scale-up of life-saving interventions. It noted that breastfeeding is one of the most effective investments in child survival, health and development.

“Breastfeeding is a public health intervention, a nutrition intervention, a human rights imperative and an investment in Kenya's human capital. It provides optimal nutrition, protects infants from disease, supports brain development, and improves maternal health,” said PS Muthoni in a speech read on her behalf by Ministry of Health Dr Nobert Abuya.

UNICEF Kenya’s Chief of Field Operations Dominic Stolarow described breastfeeding as one of the smartest investments a country can make in the earliest moments of a child's life.

“For a newborn child, breast milk is far more than food. It is the first vaccine, the first medicine, the first immune system. And for many newborns, it is the difference between life and death,” said Stolarow.

This year’s theme, ‘This year's theme, “Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works," calls upon individuals, communities, partners and stakeholders to protect breastfeeding through effective implementation of the Breast Milk Substitutes Act through encouraging workplaces to uphold breastfeeding-friendly spaces, using evidence to support breastfeeding mothers and walking hand-in-hand with mothers, fathers and communities to give babies the best start in life.

Stolarow noted that for babies without access to their own mother’s milk, pasteurized donor human milk is the next-best option; however, Kenya has only one operational Milk Bank at the Pumwani Maternity Referral Hospital.

“For babies born prematurely, critically ill, orphaned, or whose mothers face serious health complications, donor human milk can be the difference between life and death,” said Stolarow, adding that every newborn deserves that chance to get the versatile benefits of breastmilk.

UNICEF has partnered with the Government of Kenya to strengthen policies and programmes such as Baby-Friendly Health Facility and Community Initiatives, workplace breastfeeding initiatives and the Breast Milk Substitutes (Regulation and Control) Act that ensure that every boy and girl in Kenya have a chance at thriving in a strong breastfeeding environment that begins at birth at the healthcare facility, goes to the home and also the mother is supported at the workplace.

Kenya's journey over the past two decades tells a remarkable story of exclusive breastfeeding, which has increased from 13.2 percent in 2003 to 60 percent today. During the same period, infant mortality declined dramatically from 77 to 32 deaths per 1,000 live births.

According to Stolarow, these health gains that have improved child survival and led to more children thriving have been attributed to supportive communities, improved health systems, skilled healthcare workers, and enabling policies, with every mother supported countrywide by establishing a strong and sustained breastfeeding environment.

At the end of the session, the mothers and fathers sang a nutrition-themed song and renewed their commitment to support each other every day. The young parents agreed to support each on breastfeeding and to build a stronger community where every child can thrive.