(VOVworld) - The Ministry of Health, in line with the United Nations Children’s Fund in Vietnam launched ‘Breastfeeding Week’, in Hanoi on Wednesday, with the slogan ‘Mother’s Milk today, healthy tomorrow". This year’s event will try to call on every member of society to ensure that every baby has the chance to benefit from the best source of nutrition during their first six months of life, to create a firm foundation for their physical strength to develop. Despite a great deal of effort put in to implementing a program on care for mothers and children’s health by increasing breastfeeding, only 19.6% of Vietnamese mothers exclusively breastfed their children for six months.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien said ‘Breast milk is irreplaceable. In a mother’s milk, the ratio of nutrients is designed for babies as it has antibodies that fight off diseases, which no infant formula milk has. With this program, we want to encourage the entire community to pay more attention to this and make it easier for mothers to breastfeed their children, so that they can develop healthily in body and mind’.