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Exclusive breastfeeding continues to drop

15 June 2019 Philippines

Health and nutritional benefits provided by breastmilk exclusively given by nursing mothers have been withheld from at least half of Filipino infants in 2015, a survey by the De­partment of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) showed.

Breastfeeding (ZALDY COMANDA / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)Breastfeeding (ZALDY COMANDA / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)

Exclusive breastfeeding is feed­ing of breastmilk alone to infants and young children without the introduc­tion of solid or any other liquid food.

Among young infants 0 to five months old, exclusive breastfeeding was pegged at 48.8 percent accord­ing to the 2015 nutrition survey. It is 3.5 percent lower than the 52.3 percent exclusive breastfeeding in 2013.

While it appears that global nutri­tion targets set by the World Health Organization (WHO) – of increasing exclusive breastfeeding to at least 50 percent – have been achieved over the last decade, analysis by single age group showed a sustained decrease in exclusive breastfeeding among five-month-old infants.

As seen in the DOST-FNRI’s 2015 nutrition survey, only one in four or 24.7 percent of children five months old was exclusively breastfed.

It was underscored that this is still a far cry from the World Health As­sembly’s (WHA) global nutrition tar­get to “increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months up to at least 50 percent,” consider­ing the existence of Philippine laws in support of breastfeeding.

Milk code

The Philippines is one of the early supporters of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substi­tutes, with its Executive Order (EO) No. 51 (more commonly known as Milk Code) signed in 1986 and the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (RIRR) or Administrative Order No. 2006-0012 in 2006.

This legal piece essentially aims to promote and protect breastfeeding practice via the regulation of the use of formula milk, breastmilk substi­tutes and products including feeding bottles and teats.

Heavily contested by milk com­panies, certain provisions of the Milk Code (EO 51) have been circumvented just so to penetrate the lucrative mar­ket of formula milk targeting local health workers and medical practitio­ners via sponsorships, for example, at­tendance to health-related events.

The concept of “marketing” has since evolved and acquired a new face.

The Expanded Breastfeeding Pro­motion Act of 2009 or Republic Act (RA) No. 10028 is another legal piece that supports continued breastfeeding among working mothers after availing of the maternity leave.

With the law essentially creating a favorable environment to breastfeed, it mandates the establishment of lac­tation stations in public and private offices as well as the provision of lac­tation breaks or the additional 40-min­ute break on top of the regular break for meals.

By doing so, the nursing mother is encouraged to breastfeed her child (if she chooses to bring the infant to the office) or express breastmilk to take home.

In a study conducted by the Nu­trition Intervention Evaluation and Policy Section (NIEPS) of DOST-FNRI that assessed the implementation of Republic Act No. 10028, a high level of awareness on the importance of breastfeeding per se was voiced out by focus group discussants of partner-implementers of the law.

However, lapses were observed when it comes to awareness and un­derstanding of their roles in the imple­mentation of RA 10028.

In the DOST-FNRI 2013 national nutrition survey, breastfeeding knowl­edge among mothers is high, where 93.4 percent believed that breastfeed­ing is still the best feeding practice for babies.

But breastfeeding practice says otherwise, as the same survey dis­closed that mothers did not breast­feed their babies due to inadequate milk flow (40.5 percent) and when work took them away from home (17.3 percent).