Call to enforce laws to promote breastfeeding

Islamabad: Scaling Up Nutrition Civil Society Alliance Pakistan (SUNCSA, Pak) Wednesday urged the federal and provincial governments to enforce legislation on breast-milk substitutes; provide a supportive environment for maternity protection for women in employment; and ensure breastfeeding is initiated in maternity facilities and no infant formula is routinely used.

The demands were reiterated in connection with World Breastfeeding Week (WBW), which is celebrated worldwide every year from August 1 to 7 to encourage breastfeeding. This year’s theme of WBW is ‘Breastfeeding: Foundation of Life.’

In tabling its demands, CSA has also underlined the need for capacity building of health providers and community workers so that they are able to offer counselling on Infant young Child Feeding and mother-to-mother support groups in the community. These should be accompanied by communication strategies (using multiple channels and messages tailored to the local context) to promote breastfeeding.

SUNCSA, which is a coalition of over 150 civil society organizations, is organizing multiple activities from provincial to community levels to highlight importance of breastfeeding during WBW. This includes a vibrant social media campaign for promoting enabling social environments to support and encourage breastfeeding.

Despite high cultural acceptance for breastfeeding, Pakistan has the highest bottle-feeding rates and lowest exclusive breastfeeding rates in South Asia. The percentage of exclusively breastfed children in Pakistan has remained static, with just a microscopic increase evident over the last seven years. According to the Demographic Health Survey, this percentage has risen only from 37.1 per cent in 2006-07 to 37.7 per cent in 2012-13. However, when it comes to the bottle-feeding race, Pakistan has no close competitors; bottle-feeding rates have risen from an already undesirable 32.1 per cent in 2006-07 to a shamefully high 41 percent in 2012-13.

Lack of interest in implementation of laws for protection and promotion of breastfeeding in the provinces remains a key deterrent. Even though all provinces have adopted and passed provincial laws favouring breastfeeding, the implementation of these laws remains a far-fetched dream.

Breastfeeding has a multitude of benefits for women and children, regardless of whether they live in a rich or poor household. Breast-milk is the ultimate personalised medicine which can save about 820,000 lives a year, 87% of them infants under 6 months of age. It also helps to prepare children for a prosperous future. Longer breastfeeding is associated with higher performance on intelligence tests among children and adolescents.