Health experts have expressed concern over the country’s stagnation in eliminating deaths among newborns.
This is after data showed that the country’s neonatal mortality rate dropped by one point from 22 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2014 to 21 /1,000 live births in 2022.
This comes even as the country joins the rest of the world in marking the World Breastfeeding Week which begun on August 1 and runs to 7 under the theme "Let's make breastfeeding and work, work!".
This calls for concerted efforts in putting in place high impact interventions to reverse the trend and steer the country towards attaining SDGs 2030.
However, such interventions such as early initiation of breastfeeding, which is expected to be done within the first one hour of birth, and exclusively breastfeeding for at least six months are also still doing poorly.
For instance, only 60 per cent of neonates get to breastfeed within the first hour of birth.
Exclusive breastfeeding on the other hand has seen a steady rise from 23 per cent in 1989, 32 per cent in 2009, 61 per cent in 2014 before taking a dip one point to 60 per cent in 2022.
“There are numerous benefits breastfeeding has for the survival and the well-being of infants but unfortunately, many infants are not benefitting from optimal breastfeeding,” Stephen Mwangi said.
Mwangi is the programmes manager at Nutrition International.
“There is a cost that our infants are paying and this cost they are paying in terms of mortalities. What it means is that Kenya is most likely not going to hit our SDGs targets by the year 2030 as far as neonatal mortality is concerned,” he warned.
Laura Kiige, a nutrition support officer at Unicef, has associated the drop in rates of early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding to shortcomings in the healthcare sector.
She said it is the responsibility of healthcare workers to support mothers to initiate breastfeeding within the first hour of birth but this has been a challenge due to a shortage in the health workforce.
Similarly, she noted that inadequate infrastructure in some hospitals which has led to congestion and as a result women sharing beds makes it impossible for mothers to initiate breastfeeding within the first hour due to lack of space to either sit or lie down.
“How many health workers are in that labour ward taking care of how many women in that maternity? If you are one health worker, one woman is delivering, the other one needs to be supported, it becomes hard,” Kiige said.
“Besides the healthcare system there is also an aspect to do with communities. We still have quite a number of our women delivering at household level or in homes without the assistance of skilled support, which is not appropriate.”
Public Health PS Mary Muthoni acknowledges that breastfeeding stands as a cornerstone of child survival and health, providing irreplaceable nutrition for optimal growth and development.
She says that it acts as a child's primary defense against diseases, preventing 54 per cent of diarrhea episodes and 32 per cent of respiratory infections.
In addition, breastfeeding significantly reduces infection-related mortality among infants, sparing approximately 823,000 young lives each year globally.
Despite efforts by the government, breastfeeding rates in Kenya still fall below recommended targets, with one-quarter of Kenyan infants not exclusively breastfed, she notes.
"Breastfeeding is a child's first line of defense against diseases, and we must ensure that working parents have the support they need to continue this vital practice," the PS stated.
The Health Act, 2017 directs employers to provide lactation spaces equipped with necessary amenities to support breastfeeding mothers, while prohibiting the promotion, marketing, and selling of breast milk substitutes in workplaces.
Breastfeeding employees are entitled to breaks equivalent to one additional hour on regular meal breaks for breastfeeding or expressing breast milk.
By creating a nurturing environment for working mothers, Kenya aims to ensure every child receives the best start in life and contributes to building a stronger and healthier nation.