Bill filed to strengthen breastfeeding in country

MANILA, Philippines - In a bid to promote breastfeeding, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri has filed a bill that will encourage and support breastfeeding initiatives in communities and health care facilities as well as in the workplace.

Zubiri said the 2008 National Nutrition Survey showed that the rate of breast-feeding in the country has remained unchanged over the years at 34 percent despite efforts to promote it.

Other than Zubiri, the senators who are promoting breastfeeding are Loren Legarda and Pia Cayetano. 

At some point during the plenary session, Legarda even asked colleagues why they were more interested in the debates over breastfeeding rather than the issue of climate change which the female senator has been espousing.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has also filed Senate Bill 1496 which mandates the establishment of breastfeeding centers in every barangay in the country.

Santiago originally filed the bill during the third regular session during the 13th Congress.

Zubiri echoed the statements of his female colleagues that breast milk is the best source of nutrition for the first six months of life. It provides the right amount of nutrients, vitamins, proteins and minerals an infant needs. It also contains antibodies that help infants and young children fight common infections.

But Zubiri noted that the main reason why women stop breastfeeding is because they have to return to work.

“This is because there is lack of support for breastfeeding in the workplace,” said Zubiri in filing Senate Bill 2606 or the Breastfeeding Act of 2010.

The bill aims to compel all companies to set up lactation facilities in offices to encourage women to continue breast-feeding their children even when they had returned to work.

As an incentive, companies are entitled to tax deductions for the cost of setting up the lactation facilities.

Zubiri cited the National Demographic and Health Survey in 2003 which showed that 17 percent of mothers who chose not to breastfeed said it was because they were working or had returned to work.

“If we could address this, then we would be able to improve our breast-feeding rate,” he said.

The bill also provides that all pregnant women should be given all the information on the benefits of breastfeeding, maintaining lactation and proper infant and child nutrition.

Zubiri said because many women do not have access to information about appropriate child nutrition, they end up giving unacceptable food to their children.

The incidence of malnutrition in the country has increased from 2005 to 2008, after enjoying a 7.5 percentage-point decrease from 1990 to 2003.

From 24.6 percent in 2005, the percentage of Filipino children who are underweight jumped to 26.2 percent in 2008, though it is still slightly lower than the 27 percent rate in 2003.

It is estimated that 3.35 million children between 0-5 years old are malnourished.

However, as the Philippines is a signatory to the World Health Organization Milk Code, the bill prohibits the marketing and advertising of milk products for infants zero to six months old in accordance with the WHO code.

For breast milk substitutes intended for infants 6-12 months of age, their promotion and marketing are allowed only after they have been approved by the Inter-Agency Committee screening review processes.

The IAC is composed of the secretaries of the departments of Health, Social Welfare and Development, Trade and Industry, Finance and Justice.