ISLAMABAD: To mark Global Breastfeeding Week, Unicef and the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) on Wednesday held a discussion forum to raise awareness about the matter.

Global Breastfeeding Week is commemorated every year, from August 1 to August 7, and aims to raise awareness about the importance of breastfeeding infants and young children. The theme for 2016 is, ‘Support mums to breastfeed anytime, anywhere’, to encourage society to play a role in making communities breastfeeding-friendly.

Speaking at the forum, Minister for NHS Saira Afzal Tarar said: “Enforcement of breastfeeding ordinance still remains a challenge. It is heartening to note that federal and provincial infant feeding boards are also active now, and the infant and young child feeding strategy 2016 has also been launched by our ministry. However we also have to work on the creation of awareness among masses.”

Ms Tarar also said the role of healthcare providers in promoting or prescribing the indiscriminate sale and use of breast milk substitutes or formula milk was a threat to the life and wellbeing of young children in Pakistan.

“It is the prime responsibility of gynaecologists to talk to pregnant patients about the importance of exclusively breastfeeding a baby for the first six months,” she said. She also said it was “unfortunate that Caesarean babies are bottle-fed even though mothers can breastfeed.”

Ms Tarar said the government would take all the possible measures to enforce the breast milk substitutes code and the breastfeeding ordinance, with visible action.

The head of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Children Hospital paediatric department, Dr Tabish Hazir, also gave a presentation on the dismal breastfeeding situation in Pakistan, which has the highest rate of bottle feeding in South Asia.

He said according to the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS), the percentage of bottle-feeding in Pakistan rose from 32.1pc in 2006-07 to 41pc in 2012-13, and only 37.7pc of mothers exclusively breastfeed their children.

He added: “Exclusive breastfeeding rates are lowest among educated women belonging to the upper socioeconomic strata. However, bottle-feeding rates are highest among working women as they don’t have daycare centres or an environment conducive to breastfeeding in the workplace.”

He said the awareness and the behaviour of families and the community need to be altered positively to promote breastfeeding, by raising awareness among the people using all the channels of mass communication.

Unicef Country Representative Angela Kearny highlighted the importance of breastfeeding and emphasised the implementation of existing breastfeeding laws.

She said: “There is a need to create awareness among the masses regarding the deadly disease their children could fall prey to if not exclusively breastfed during the first six months.”

NHS Director Nutrition Wing Dr Baseer Khan Achakzai said there is a need to make people understand that exclusive breastfeeding is a preventive measure. He said the non-functional infant feeding boards at the federal and provincial levels, indiscriminate prescription of formula milk by healthcare providers and the lack of community based breastfeeding promotion initiatives were some of the main causes of the alarming bottle-feeding rates in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2016