More than 40% of  newborn babies are not exclusively breastfed and a similar number are not breastfed within the first hour of life, putting them at heightened risk of disease and death, the United Nation’s  children’s agency says, highlighting Southeast Asia and sub-Sahara Africa as areas of concern.

Feeding babies within an hour of birth passes on critical nutrients, antibodies and skin contact with their mothers that can protect them, UNICEF said.

Delaying breastfeeding by two to 23 hours after birth increase of a baby dying in its firth month by 40 percent and delaying by 24 hours or more increases the risk of death to 80 percent, UNICEF said.

Studies show newborns account for nearly half of all deaths of children under 5.

Timor-Leste Ministry of Health, which has been campaigning with UNICEF and WHO to promote early and exclusive breastfeeding, says new mothers are getting the message but more support is needed.

Timor-Leste’s Food and Nutrition Survey 2020 showed levels of exclusive breast-feeding rates of infants (less than 6 months old) at 62 per cent, up by 10 per cent from 2010.

Worryingly, the group with most decline in breastfeed levels are amongst better-off, educated women living in urban areas, where poverty rates are lower.

“Mothers breastfeeding are giving their newborns the first and best protection babies can get against illness and disease,” Odette Viegas, General Director at Minister of Health, said in the campaign launch on Thursday.

A 2020 Alive and Thrive study found improving breast feeding levels could save Timor-Leste US$89,000 in health system treatment costs related to inadequate breastfeeding