BREASTFEEDING AND WORK: LET’S MAKE IT WORK

THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH (DOH) today urges all mothers to practice exclusive breastfeeding up to six months to reduce child mortality and improve child survival as part of the High-Five critical public health interventions of providing accessible, affordable, and quality health care to all, especially the poor.

As the country joins the global community in the observance of World Breastfeeding Week, the DOH revealed that low breastfeeding practice in the country (28%, National Nutrition Survey 2013) contributes to 800,000 infant deaths worldwide. The 2012 World Health Assembly Resolution aims to increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months to at least 50% by 2025.

Health Secretary Janette P. Loreto-Garin disclosed that statistics from the country’s National Demographic and Health Survey and the National Nutrition Survey showed minimal increase in the proportion of infants who have been exclusively breastfed until five months old - 22.6% in 2008 to 28.3% in 2013.

This year’s theme, “Tama, Sapat, Eksklusibo ang Pagpapasuso kahit nasa Trabaho” (Breastfeeding and Work, Let’s Make it Work) emphasizes on the importance of supporting women in the workplace to practice exclusive breastfeeding.

Garin explained that breastfeeding is a natural process of nurturing a child. She revealed that a newborn baby has only three demands- warmth in the arms of its mother, food from a mother’s breast, and security in the knowledge of a mother’s presence. Breastfeeding fulfills all these three.

Despite the passage of  RA 10028 or the ‘Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009’, the challenge to continue exclusive breastfeeding for six months is still hampered by factors like very short duration of maternity leave, non-compliance to lactation breaks, and unavailability of lactation stations in workplaces.

A 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey revealed that five out of ten women in the workplace who belong to the third to fifth socio-economic quintile will discontinue breastfeeding and thereby affect exclusive breastfeeding practices in the country.

The health chief stressed that infant and young child feeding practices which include breastfeeding initiation, exclusive breastfeeding for six months and complementary feeding with continued and sustained breastfeeding are known to reduce under-five mortality rates by 20-25%.

In order to increase exclusive breastfeeding and reduce infant/child mortality, the 2011-2016 Infant and Young Child Feeding Strategic Plan of Action aims to achieve the goal of having 90% of newborns initiated into breastfeeding within one hour after birth. Study showed that if early initiation of breastfeeding is done, there will be a greater chance to continue exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life.

“Let us support breastfeeding in the health facilities, at home, in the community and at the work place. We are not only giving nourishment to our children but more importantly, the love that we feed our children cannot be substituted by anymilk formula to help their optimum brain development, growth, and healthy nutrition.” Garin concluded.  # Source – www.doh.gov.ph