Failure to breastfeed killing 90% of babies

Nine out of 10 babies 6 months old and below are dying in the Philippines because they have not been breastfed by their mothers, a United Nations official said on Friday.

The UN Resident Coordinator for the Philippines Jacqueline Badcoc, revealed this at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel during the launch of the Spanish government’s three-year, $3.5-million joint program of various UN agencies and the Philippine government that is aimed at ensuring food security and nutrition for children up to 2 years old in the Philippines.

The three-year joint program, funded through the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund, would target a total 227,000 children under 5 years old, 45,000 pregnant and 260,000 lactating women from Naga City and Pasacao in Camarines Sur, Carles and Iloilo City in Iloilo and Zamboanga City and Aurora in Zamboanga del Sur.

Spanish Ambassador Luis Arias Romero said that the project would contribute to saving many lives and improving the nutrition of thousands of children in the beneficiary areas.

“These children are the adults of the future who will be in charge of continuing the development and progress of this country,” he noted.

Only 18% breastfeed

Badcock said that only 18 percent of Filipino mothers are observing the six-month exclusive breastfeeding rule for their babies, while the continued breastfeeding after the first six months alongside complementary feeding is also hardly practiced.

“[About] 16,000 out of 82,000 deaths of children under 5 years of age are because of lack of breastfeeding, which is otherwise preventable. Breastfeeding, the most economical, safe and nutritious for babies, can reduce up to 13 percent of malnutrition, while having it with complementary feeding will decrease the child mortality by 6 percent,” she added.

“As a result, children suffer from low intelligence, reduced physical capability and increased malnutrition,” Badcock said.

To back up her claims, she cited that the lack of breastfeeding has resulted in increased percentage of undernourished children under the age of 5 to 26.2 percent in 2008 from 24.6 percent in 2005. The 26.2 percent is almost the same as the 1993 levels.

Assistant Secretary Maria Bernardita Flores, the executive director of the National Nutrition Council, also cited the factors that decimate breastfeeding-promotion efforts, such as the false perception that the mother has no milk and that mothers must immediately go back to work after giving birth.

Also blamed is the large-scale marketing of infant formulas, lack of breastfeeding-benefits awareness among mothers and the shortage of skilled health workers and other professionals who could provide post-natal care to mothers.

“When female parents go back to work, they will be confined in an environment not suitable for lactating mothers and as such, the breastfeeding is interrupted. The big-time marketing of infant formulas, on the other hand, creates the impression that it could substitute for breast feeding,” Flores said.

Lactating mothers

Soe Nyunt-U, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative in the Philippines, said that such situation should prompt both the public and the private sectors to have child-minding centers in place and make their offices conducive to lactating mothers.

The United Nations Children’s Fund Country Representative to the Philippines, Vanessa Tobi, said that breastfeeding promotion should zero in on all mothers, regardless if they are from the poor, middle class or rich households. Even mothers of poor households, she added, are buying infant milk formula.

“That is why we are embarking on a nationwide communication campaign so as to convince the mothers that breastfeeding is the best for their babies. Also, health professionals should make it a point to remind their patients that breastfeeding their children is the best way to protect and take care of them, “ Tobin said. –Llanesca T. Panti Reporter wITH report from CRIS G. ODRONIA, Manila Times