Policies and legal framework for promoting exclusive breastfeeding in Peru

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) in its latest report on the Nutrition Goals for 2025, has included breastfeeding as the 5th goal, proposing to increase the exclusive breastfeeding rate in the first 6 months of life to at least 50%, to improve the survival rate and health of infants. This has prompted WHO member countries to increase their efforts to promote breastfeeding practice so as to increase the statistics of countries with less than 1% of women who practice exclusive breastfeeding. Peru, as a member state, has a track record in implementing provisions that have contributed to improving the spirit of this goal, currently ranking first in Latin American countries and second in the world with the highest frequency of exclusive breastfeeding, according to UNICEF. The aim of this article is to describe the implementation of legal provisions related to the increase in exclusive breastfeeding in Peru.