PSI India Support to World Breastfeeding Week 2025: Strengthening Nutrition, Immunity & Health

I had stopped exclusively breastfeeding my baby because I felt my milk wasn’t enough. During a group meeting, ASHA didi explained that exclusive breastfeeding is one of the most powerful ways to protect a child’s health. I realised my mistake. Now, I will exclusively breastfeed my baby until he completes six months.”

Throughout the week, health staff, frontline workers, and community influencers engaged families through counselling sessions, mothers’ group meetings and home visits. These interactions focused on dispelling common myths and reinforcing evidence-based practices that support healthy child growth.

Mothers were encouraged to initiate breastfeeding within the first hour of birth, a critical step that provides newborns with colostrum. The importance of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months was strongly emphasized, helping families understand how it prevents from diarrhoea and pneumonia while ensuring optimal nutrition.

Frontline workers also highlighted the need for continued breastfeeding up to two years or beyond, along with timely and appropriate complementary feeding after six months.

PSI India team ensured that messages aligned with Government of India guidelines reached thousands of beneficiaries, reinforcing breastfeeding as one of the most effective and natural ways to protect children from malnutrition and common illnesses, especially diarrhoea.