Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding

Deliveries in hospitals dropped from over 90% to 54%, even though most Iraqi women expressed a preference for giving birth in a hospital. Deficiencies in the emergency systems and a lack of ambulances increased the risk of maternal death. One in eight deliveries had complications (prolonged and with hemorrhaging in most cases) and, given the lack of ambulances, only a third of difficult deliveries could be taken to hospital. During this period of years, the Health Ministry together with UNICEF set up enrolment programmes for traditional midwives and provided basic equipment for help with delivery at home.

The Iraqi Health Ministry also implemented family planning services and encouraged a return to breastfeeding at least for the first six months. To this end what were the so-called «Baby Friendly Hospitals», a total of 23, were set up, to encourage breastfeeding and offer treatment to mothers. The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in 1989/90 was 60% for the first three months and 45% for the first year, low figures which show the modernising process in the country. Following the introduction of sanctions, surveys revealed notable rises in breastfeeding. In a survey carried out in 1997 by the Health Ministry and UNICEF, 92.4% of mothers breastfed their babies between 0 and 11 months, 81.4% from 12 to 15 months and 50% from 21 to 23 months, the rates being higher in the countryside than in the cities, but also for women at both extremes of education levels. Nevertheless, only 13.3% exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months, and nearly half of cases stuck to the traditional custom of supplementing mother’s milk with water.