Imagine a food that is free,
nutritious and has the potential to save thousands of children’s lives. Well
there’s no need to imagine it, it already exists- a mother’s milk; breastfeeding
is one of the most powerful weapons we have to fight child mortality. The
teachings of Islam also strongly endorse that mothers should breastfeed their
children for two years.
The Global Breastfeeding Week
concluded with a number of advocacy and awareness raising
events across the country and globally. The World Breastfeeding Week which,
each year, presents an important opportunity to put the spotlight on the
importance of breastfeeding for saving children’s lives. But this can’t just be
a one week effort; we need strong leadership and political action all year
round to promote it.
According to the medical journal, the
Lancet, suboptimum breastfeeding results in more than 800,000 child deaths
annually. If we can ensure that every newborn is given breast milk immediately
after birth and is fed only breast milk for the first six months, we can
greatly increase the chance that they will survive and go on to fulfil their potential.
Around one
in eight of the young lives lost each year could be prevented through
breastfeeding, making it one of the most effective of all ways
to prevent the diseases and malnutrition that can cause child deaths.
It is estimated that 3.1 million
children die from malnutrition each year. Breastfeeding is not only crucial for
tackling malnutrition and saving children’s lives, it also has the potential to
have tangible impacts on the economic and social development of countries likes
Pakistan. Malnutrition can undermine future earning potential by as much as 20%
and can inhibit growth of GDP by as much as 2-3%. Today’s malnutrition
will knock $125bn
off the global economy by 2030, when these children reach working
age.
But breastfeeding is undervalued.
Global rates of breastfeeding have remained below 40% for the past 20 years as
breastfeeding has slipped down the list of political priorities. In some countries,
particularly in East Asia and the Pacific, the number of breastfed children is
starting to fall.
In Pakistan only 37 per cent of
children are exclusively breastfed for the first six months meaning that too
many children are missing out on the vital nutrients they need in the first
months of life. Similarly, the early initiation of breastfeeding is only 29 per
cent in the country. That needs to change.
If babies receive colostrum – the
mother’s first milk – within an hour of birth, it will kick start the child’s
immune system, making them three times more likely to survive. If the mother
continues feeding for the next six months, then a child growing up in the
developing world is up to 15 times less likely to die from killer diseases like
pneumonia and diarrhoea.
So what needs to happen? We need
to ensure that women have the support they need to breastfeed and overcome the
main barriers preventing them from doing so. Those barriers include community
and cultural practices which discourage women from breastfeeding, severe
shortages of midwives and health workers meaning that too often the opportunity
for new mothers to be supported to breastfeed in the first few hours is lost,
lack of adequate maternity legislation and marketing practices by some breast
milk substitute companies leading to infant formula being used unnecessarily
and improperly, ultimately putting children at risk.
Tackling these barriers demands a
new and concerted effort from many different groups of people; governments,
local communities and business. For example, governments and local communities
need to take action to empower women to make their own decisions about breastfeeding,
governments need to invest in strengthening health systems to protect, promote
and support breastfeeding and introduce nationwide breastfeeding-friendly
policies and legislation. Finally, businesses need to act responsibly in their
marketing on Breast Milk Substitutes and governments need to ensure that national
regulation of Breast Milk Substitutes is strengthened and enforced. This issue
is increasingly important in emerging economies, where some companies are aggressively
marketing their products, despite the threat that this undermines support for
breastfeeding.
In the last two decades there has
been huge global progress in reducing child mortality with five million fewer
children dying in 2011 than in 1990. The world is nearing a tipping point, the time
at which the eradication of preventable child deaths becomes a real
possibility. But there is still a lot to
do to reach that point - breastfeeding is key to unlocking further progress and
saving hundreds and thousands of children’s lives.
Pakistan, voted in favour of
adopting the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes during
the World Health Assembly in May 1981, and promulgated “The Protection of
Breastfeeding and Young Child Nutrition Ordinance 2002” to enforce the code.
The ordinance prohibits the promotion of any milk produced as partial or total
replacement for mother’s milk or represented as a complement to mother’s milk
to meet the growing nutritional needs of an infant. The ordinance requires from
health workers to encourage, support and protect breastfeeding. Following the
devolution, earlier this year, the Sindh Assembly enacted the local
legislation by Sindh “The Sindh Protection and Promotion of Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition
Act 2013”. Similarly, last year the Punjab Assembly also adopted the law as the
Punjab Protection of Breastfeeding and Young Child Nutrition (Amendment) Act 2012.
“It’s heartening to know that
Sindh and Punjab have enacted laws for the Protection and Promotion of
Breastfeeding. However, the real test is its implementation in letter and
spirit”. “Despite the Protection of Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition Ordinance
on statute books since 2002, its implementation
has always remained a distant desire.” Similarly, Punjab and Sindh have not
been able to notify the rules and Infant Feeding Boards to monitor
implementation of the law.
Keeping in view, the importance
of breastfeeding in preventing fatal childhood diseases and neonatal mortality
it is important that Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also enact laws on the
pattern of Sindh and steps are taken for the effective implementation of these
laws in all provinces. This will ensure safe nutrition for infants by promoting
and protecting breastfeeding.
Similarly, the federal government
should also take practical steps for the implementation of the Protection of
Breastfeeding and Young Child Nutrition Ordinance 2002 for the Islamabad
Capital Territory and Federally Administered Areas. Infant Feeding Boards
require to be notified immediately in Islamabad, Sindh and Punjab to monitor
the implementation of the respective laws.
There is also a need to put
promotion of breastfeeding on the agenda of civil society including NGOs, print
and electronic media and academia to play their role in its promotion at all
levels and create widespread awareness in the society which will ultimately
lead to reduction in preventable infant and under 5 mortality in Pakistan.
The writer is a child rights
activist and tweets at @amahmood72
No comments:
Post a Comment