Breastfeeding & Maternal Medical Conditions

In Egypt women in the reproductive age (15-49 years) constitute 26.6% of whom 20.5% are married womenwith over 40% of the population living below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 (in terms of purchasingpower parity terms PPP a day). Nutritional risk factors that predispose noncommunicable disease amongEgyptian women are overweight, obesity and anemia. Anemia is highest in all Upper Egypt governorates and inDakhlia in LE as shown in figure (III.17.1). Also the EDHS (2014) reports that mean Body Mass Index (BMI) is30 for all women and 36.5 for the overweight and 48.1 for the obese women. Distribution of obesity across thegovernorates of Egypt is shown figure (III.16.2) being highest Dakahlia, Giza, Behira, Kaluibiya and Gharbia.