Last year, this annual awareness-raising event was observed in more than 100 countries around the world.
Human milk is considerably more than a simple collection of nutrients.
It is a living substance of great biological complexity that not only provides unique protection against disease, but also stimulates the baby's own immune system. When babies are artificially fed the most immediately apparent result is increased rates of sickness and death. Although the impact is particularly dramatic in poor communities, the immunological benefits of breast milk are no less real among relatively affluent populations. Moreover, artificial feeding can do no more than approximate the physiological and emotional significance of the act of breast-feeding for babies and mothers alike. The length of time and the way breast-feeding proceeds is also significant, once again for mother and child alike.