Background

Right to nutrition including breast milk is the right of every child. (1) Breastfeeding is a natural process of feeding the newborns and isuniversally accepted as the best method of feeding babies. It helps to develop the foundation for a caring and trusting relationship between mother and child. History suggests, during 20thcentury, significant increase of women's involvement in workplace outside the home setting had made breast-feeding less popular and a burden. (2) Urbanization and advances in technology had contributed further. With the rapid growth of industries and their competition in the twentieth century, industrial food products were developed along with the production of breast milk substitutes. (2)Decrease in breastfeeding prevalence was found toincrease the morbidity and mortality among children. (3,4,5,6) This situation received the worldwide attention and to address the issue, Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI)was initiated by WHO and UNICEF in 1991. (7) BFHI is a global effort launched by WHO and UNICEF to implement practices that protect, promote and support breastfeeding. The initiative has two main goals: a) to transform hospitals and maternity facilities through implementation of the Ten Steps and b) to end the practice of distribution of free and low-cost supplies of breast milk substitutes to maternity wards and hospitals. BFHI has incorporated the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (1981) and is aimed to protect and promote breastfeeding.Since thelaunch of initiative, more than 20,000 hospitals in 156 countries in the world have adopted it over the last 15 years. (7) In 2002, Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding was developed by WHO and UNICEF which was based on the Innocenti Declaration and BHFI and addresses the needs of all children, including those living in difficult circumstances, such as mothers living with HIV, low birth-weight infants and infants in emergency situations. In the process of development and expansion of the BFHI, several regional and national level meetings were organized for effective networking and providing feedback an