Only 25 percent of babies are breastfed exclusively until the age of six months in China, and the ratio in large cities is even lower, neonatology experts said on the National Breastfeeding Promotion Day, which fell on Friday.

"Breast milk is the best food for infants always and is especially precious for premature babies or those who are ill. Our study in the past years has shown that breastfeeding can significantly reduce the occurrence of necrotizing enterocolitis (severe intestinal infection) and related mortality," said Xu Hong, Party chief of the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai.

But the current breastfeeding rate in the country is far from being satisfactory, she said. A report by World Bank in 2014 showed that the rate of breastfeeding in China had slumped by 40 percent in the past 16 years.

To encourage more newborns, especially the premature ones, to be fed with breast milk, the Children's Hospital of Fudan University has provided private rooms for nursing mothers, where there are equipment to pump breast milk and refrigeration for storing milk as premature infants usually stay apart from their mothers at the neonatal intensive care unit.