Maternal healthcare indicators in India have shown consistent improvement over the past few years. Not only did the percentage of women delivering in hospitals increase, but the number of women receiving postnatal check-ups within two days of birth has also increased. However, C-section rates have also risen. These trends continued in the most recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6, 2023–24), with institutional deliveries reaching 90.6% and postnatal care coverage at 82.8%However, exclusive breastfeeding rates did not follow this route. The percentage of infants exclusively breastfed for the first six months increased from 54.9% in NFHS-4 to 63.7% in NFHS-5 but again declined to 55.8% in NFHS-6. This development effectively brings us back to where we started nearly a decade ago, in just three years.State-level NFHS data were analysed to examine the apparent divergence between improvements in institutional delivery and declines in exclusive breastfeeding.
National trends in maternal healthcare, exclusive breastfeeding and selected child nutrition indicators, NFHS-4 to NFHS-6. EBF refers to exclusive breastfeeding among infants younger than six months; stunting and wasting refer to children under five
