Obstacles to breastfeeding cited

MANILA, Philippines - Despite the deep-seated breastfeeding (BF) culture in the Philippines, Filipino mothers have increasingly been using other feeding substitutes like formula milk and infant foods for most urban households and thick rice broth (or am) in remote rural areas, thus keeping the breastfeeding practice steadily low at 34 percent for the past five years. 

This stark picture was revealed during the conclusion of the National Breastfeeding Month last August 25 and 26 by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Department of Health and non government organization advocating for breastfeeding for mothers. 

The most common obstacle to the adoption of breastfeeding, which is mandated by Republic Act 10028 of 2009 or the Expanded BF Promotions Act, is the lack of institutional awareness and appreciation of breastfeeding by community health workers, hospital workers (nurses, pediatricians, resident specialists, etc.) “who opt to prescribe the easy- to- prepare formula milk over breastfeeding to mothers who have just given birth.” 

UNICEF Country Representative Vanessa Tobin said the lack of support from the mother’s immediate circle—husband, parents and siblings—and in the birthing facilities (hospitals, lying-in clinics and even in homes where midwives administer the birth) aggravate the challenges of mothers in committing themselves to exclusively breastfeed their babies.    

According to Neo-Natologist/Pediatrician Dr. Maria Asuncion Silvestre, several decades of mis-education of the mothers (“who are bombarded by constant and heavily-budgeted advertising from formula milk producers”), nurses, health workers, doctors and midwives, and the lack of skilled and working knowledge of breastfeeding have all contributed to the low growth rates of breastfeeding in the country and the continued lack of appreciation by the citizens of its innumerable health benefits to mothers, children, and society at large. 

Celebrity advocates – Nuriza Bungubung (founder of Beauty, Brains, and Breastfeeding), Patricia Bermudez- Hizon (wife of basketball player, Vince Hizon), commercial model Daphne Oseña-Paez--- discussed their respective difficulties in breastfeeding their young and in pushing for exclusive breastfeeding (of up to 2 years old of infancy) for the welfare of both mother and child.

They recounted their hardships in breastfeeding right at their homes, their work places, and while shopping at malls, which then did not provide a breastfeeding station until SM Megamall started its own in March 2006, way ahead of the 2009 Expanded Breastfeeding law.   

SM Megamall was the first mall to put up a BF station arising from an embarrassing situation when a mother, while breastfeeding her baby, was asked by a security guard to do it in the comfort room. This outraged her and she made sure this event landed in the papers, recalled Bernadette Velasco, SM’s Program Director on breastfeeding.

At the stations, the mothers can nurse their babies comfortably and peacefully for free. Inside the station is a diaper changing area, couches and a lavatory. Each station has a nurse (with Megamall having three, one for each shift). SM plans to put up a second station in building B of Megamall, Velasco said.

After four years, SM has put up 35 (out of its 38 malls) such stations that served more than 63,000 mothers and counting. By the last quarter of 2010, it shall be opening three more BF stations. SM has been receiving positive feedbacks for its stations from grateful mothers, who say that such service provided them a special bonding with their children. It also made the “malling” experience complete for the entire family, Velasco added.

Even WHO Representative to the Philippines Dr. Soe Nyunt-U lamented how breastfeeding in the Philippines did not take off by even 1 percent since 2005 (at 34 percent) thereby exposing children to mortality arising from diarrhea, pneumonia, and even hepatitis complications from partial or no breastfeeding at all.