YANGON, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- A Myanmar high-ranking health official has stressed the implementation of breast feeding project as a prime task in boosting health status of women and babies.

    Dr Paing Soe, Myanmar Deputy Health Minister, made the remarks at a ceremony in Yangon Wednesday marking the World Breastfeeding Week, the state newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Thursday.

    Paing Soe said that since the project started in 1993, a total of 445 hospitals in Myanmar were acknowledged as Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative and 159 townships as Baby Friendly Home Delivery.

    According to the health authorities, 42.4 percent of the country's hospitals were covered by the breast feeding plan.

    To promote dissemination of breast feeding information and education, this years' world breast feeding week campaign has been launched across Myanmar since the beginning of this month by the health ministry involving the cooperation of United Nations agencies and domestic non-governmental organizations.

    Earlier statistics of the ministry indicated that 97 percent of mothers in Myanmar breast fed their babies but only 70 percent are methodical.

    The ministry has called for systematic breastfeeding habit to get benefits derived from the feeding.