Only 37% of Bangladeshi newborns were breastfed within an hour of birth in 2022, down from 59% in 2018

Only 36.9% of newborns in Bangladesh were put to the breast within one hour of birth in 2022, down from 59.3% in 2018. Exclusive breastfeeding of infants under six months fell over the same period from 65.0% to 53.3%.

59.3% → 36.9%

Newborns breastfed within one hour of birth, 2018 and 2022.

The 2022 early-initiation figure is also below every earlier survey reading in the UNICEF series since 2007 (43.1%): it was 46.7% in 2011, 57.4% in 2013, 50.8% in 2014 and 46.6% in 2019. Exclusive breastfeeding peaked at 65.0% in 2018 and was 62.6% in 2019, against 38.9% in 2004.

Both practices are core elements of newborn and infant feeding guidance, which is why they are tracked as indicators of child nutrition. A fall of this size in a few years is a signal for health services to check, for example how facility births, caesarean deliveries and post-natal support are handled, but the data do not say why the figures dropped.

Caveat: these values come from household surveys of different rounds and years, with confidence intervals of a few percentage points (for example 35.0 to 38.9% for early initiation in 2022). Surveys differ in design, so year-to-year changes should be read as indications, not exact measurements.

Source: UNICEF Data Warehouse, indicators NT_BF_EIBF and NT_BF_EXBF (Bangladesh, both sexes).