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WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK

Breast milk ‘safest, cheapest’ option for babies –DOH, Unicef, WHO


Filipino mothers were encouraged once again to breastfeed their children up to two years as the Philippines kicked off the 2017 ASEAN Breastfeeding Forum as part of the global goal of “sustaining breastfeeding together.”

At a forum in Parañaque City on Thursday, Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial said that breastfeeding initiation rates in the country improved from a “measly” 49 percent in 2013 to 77 percent in 2015 with the help of Unang Yakap, or the DOH's Essential Newborn Care (ENC).

However, mothers who continue to breastfeed beyond six months only improved to 52 percent in 2015 from 48 percent in 2011, and lower than that after 12 months.

“A high proportion of children are weaned off in terms of continuing breastfeeding up to two years old. They're already stopped from getting breast milk at 12 months to 23 months. From eight percent, it increased to 30.8 percent, so we're not a good example in this region,” Ubial said.

 

 

Part of the huge gap in breastfeeding is the marketing of breast milk substitutes, which UNICEF Country Representative for the Philippines Lotta Sylwander said “distorted” the true benefits of breastfeeding.

“The benefits of breastfeeding have been distorted. We have milk companies that produce milk powder that they promote to be given to infants and young children instead of being breastfed. They also advertise the benefits of this powder as being better than breastmilk,” Sylwander explained.

“Let there be no confusion about this: breastmilk is better. Even if a mother is malnourished, the breast milk that she can give her baby is better than any powder that has ever been produced in this world,” she continued.

 

 

The benefits of breast milk is great enough that the donation of any kind of milk is prohibited in evacuation centers around Marawi City.

 

 

“Breastfeeding is always the best option. We need to work together to really change the culture and practices in the country and other ASEAN countries to make breastfeeding normal,” added WHO Country Representative for the Philippines Dr. Gundo Weiler.

 

 

Sharing national successess and strategies regarding breastfeeding is the aim of the three-day ASEAN forum on breastfeeding, themed “ASEAN Ugnayan: One Community Protecting, Promoting, and Supporting Breastfeeding.”

“The ASEAN Breastfeeding Forum gathers all of us to reflect on how our current health and government systems can [be] more integrative towards women and children's health and nutrition by learning from the successess and challenges of each country,” Ubial said.

“Much of our attention has to be turned at looking at mothers and children as one unit until the little ones are raised to their full potential to become productive members and citizens of this country, thus reducing malnutrition among our children and the general population,” she continued.

The three-day event will culminate with Hakab Na! or The Big Latch On 2017 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. At the event, thousands of mothers will breastfeed their children together for one minute in support of all breastfeeding mothers.

Aiding these efforts beyond the forum are the integration of breastfeeding into national and local hospitals' post-partum services; promoting institutional arrangements for breastfeeding in the workplace; human milk banking; community-based breastmilk donation programs; and feedings for young children.

Legislators are also being urged for a greater implementation of Republic Act 10028 or the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009 and Executive Order 51 or the national code on marketing breastmilk substitutes, supplements, and related products.

“Breast is best. Make no mistake, it is in all situations even in emergency situations,” Sywander said. “It is the cheapest, safest, most effective health intervention we can have. It doesn't cost anything. We just need to make mothers breastfeed.” — BM, GMA News

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