LAHORE: The Infant Feeding Board Punjab in its first meeting held on Thursday reviewed rules and regulations of the federal legislation on ‘Protection of Breast Feeding and Child Nutrition Ordinance 2002’.

Headed by Parliamentary Secretary to Chief Minister for Health Khawaja Imran Nazir, the meeting was organized by the Health Department in collaboration with HELP (Health, Education and Literacy Programme) and Save the Children Pakistan Programme.

Experienced and qualified healthcare professionals and senior officials of the health department also attended the meeting.

The meeting emphasized on finalizing the rules and regulations for ‘The Punjab Protection of Breast Feeding and Child Nutrition Act 2012’ in consultation with the Punjab Health and Law departments.

The meeting shared statistics which depicted alarming situation in respect of infant mortality ratio and the low progress in preventing deaths.

Quoting Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012-13, the experts shared that Pakistan had not made any progress in reducing infant and neonatal mortality rate. It still stood at 74/1,000 and 55/1,000 live births indicating that around 400,000 babies were likely to die during their first year of life.

According to estimates, 11 per cent deaths take place due to diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections, but 22pc of all neonatal deaths can be prevented if breastfeeding is initiated within one hour by all mothers and exclusive breastfeeding is ensured up to six months.

The exclusive breastfeeding rates are as low as 38pc in Pakistan for lack of awareness among general population and unethical marketing practices by the corporate sector.

Unfortunately, the experts said, these alarming figures demonstrated that Pakistan was far behind in achieving the MDG target of reducing the under-five mortality to 52 deaths per 1,000 live births and infant mortality to 40 deaths per 1,000 live births by 2015.

They said Pakistan by ensuring exclusive breast feeding practice could reduce infant mortality which would also help in achieving MDGs 1 and 4. Goal 1 calls for eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. Breastfeeding significantly contributes to low cost, high quality food and sustainable food security for a baby. Goal 4 calls for reducing child mortality by reducing diarrhoea and acute respiratory disorders.

Since breast milk is uncontaminated, readily available and has all nutrients needed at an early age, it saves babies from diarrhoea, the second major cause of infant deaths.

The law prohibits any free sampling, gifts to health providers by infant formula companies. It further prohibits direct contact with mothers in health facilities.

Honorary Chairperson of Health Education and Literacy Programme (HELP) Prof Dr DS Akram said breastfeeding was the foremost right of every child and needed to be protected from increasing marketing practices of infant formula companies by implementation in letter and spirit of the Protection of Breastfeeding and Young Child Nutrition Act 2012.

Apprising participants of the history of breastfeeding promotion campaign in Pakistan, she stressed that rules and regulations and constant monitoring were crucial in the implementation of this important law.

She urged representatives of the health department to expedite the approval and notify these rules, thus saving on health budget being spent on infant morbidity and mortality due to lack of optimum breast feeding and resulting infections and malnutrition in children.

The government would also save foreign exchange by decreased imports of these infant formulas, she said.

Khwaja Nazir said the Punjab government was committed to ensuring the implementation of the Protection of Breastfeeding and Young Child Nutrition Act 2012 to protect the health of newborn babies.

He said improving the health of mother and child was on government’s priority agenda and several innovative steps had been taken on the direction of the chief minister.

General Health Additional Director Dr Tanveer Ahmed said that federal and Punjab governments had consulted various departments for designing of the 2012 act.

The objective was to ensure safety of children through breast feeding, he said and emphasized on considering various advocacy techniques highlighted by the Save the Children Pakistan Programme.

Law Secretary Dr Najmi said the legislative intervention would be initiated when and where needed.

He assured participants of extending full legislative support to the health department and other consultative partners who were trying to promote breastfeeding in the best interest of mothers and children alike.

He said that discussions were needed to make this legislation more effective.

MPA Dr Nausheen Hamid laid stress on unnecessary hospitalization of mothers after deliveries.

She said that young mothers were largely unaware of hazards of formula milk usage and start feeding newborns with bottles immediately after birth. She recommended display of awareness posters in health clinics and hospitals to sensitize and educate new mothers.

Dr Nadia Aziz said the promotion of formula milks by multinationals in hospitals and clinics must be checked and no poster should be allowed there to bring about improvement in the alarming statistics of under-five child deaths.

Dr Naveed, Provincial Manager of Advocacy and Campaigns, Save the Children, suggested the extension of the membership of infant feeding board Punjab and inclusion of developmental partners so that meetings could be commenced at the provincial level as and when required.

Punjab Health Director-General Dr Zahid Pervaiz said the health department would look into recommendations given in the meeting to finalize rules and regulations for breastfeeding law.