Improving breastfeeding in the context of HIV

Highlights

A baby born in South Africa today is likely to be breastfed within the first hour after birth, regardless of the mother’s HIV status. Exclusively breastfeeding a baby up until the age of six months is a life-saving intervention. As recently as 2010, however, providing HIV-positive mothers with infant formula was still the norm in many parts of the country. This was until a determined team of policy makers and academics from KwaZulu-Natal began advocating for the life-saving qualities of breast-milk, a call that began to reverberate at a national level, leading to radical policy changes aimed at supporting breastfeeding in the context of HIV.

Author(s)

UNICEF South Africa

Publication date

July 2015

Languages

English