ISLAMABAD: Though exclusive breastfeeding is one of the most low cost interventions for reducing child mortality, Pakistan has the highest bottle-feeding and the lowest exclusive breastfeeding rates in South Asia.

However, legislation by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly on breast feeding has given a new hope to health experts that Pakistan may succeed in reducing the trend of bottle feeding.

It may be mentioned that on January 9, the KP assembly unanimously passed the “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Protection of Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition Act 2015” under which any step by a powder milk manufacturer or distributor to encourage bottle-feeding would be considered a punishable deed.

The Nutrition Civil Society Alliance Pakistan in a statement on Friday termed the legislation a monumental step. It expressed the hope that the provincial government would also take steps to effectively implement the law by introducing its rules and notifying the KP Infant Feeding Board to monitor the implementation of the law.

Legislation by KP assembly gives new hope for reducing trend of bottle feeding

Moreover, it demanded the federal and provincial governments take steps for the implementation of breastfeeding laws by establishing and activating the boards.

Under the law, headed by the provincial health minister, an 11-member infant feeding board would be constituted which would report violations, recommend investigation against manufacturers, distributors or health workers and advise the government on policies or guidelines for the promotion and protection of breastfeeding.

More importantly, the law makes it mandatory for breast milk supplement manufacturers to display a public message which should clearly communicate the fact that any supplement or substitute cannot replace the significance of mother’s milk.

They should also write on the milk packages in bold characters that “Mother’s milk is best for your baby and helps in preventing diarrhoea and other illnesses.”

The law prohibits labeling packages with any public message or advertising note that might discourage breastfeeding.

It also makes it mandatory for health workers to support breastfeeding and stops them from promoting any so-called substitute product for infants.

The law has defined an “infant” as a baby up to the age of 12 months. The violators of the law can face an imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of Rs50,000 to Rs500,000 or both.

Dr Irshad Danish, advocacy and campaign specialist with Save the Children, told Dawn that at the federal level a law to discourage bottle feeding was set up in 2002 but for the next 12 years the infant feeding board, which had to implement the law, could not be established.

“Last year, the board was established but it has not held any meeting so far,” he said.

The board has to make sure that the representatives of the powered milk manufactures never visit children’s hospitals.

Moreover, they should not give any incentive to doctors.

The board also has to ensure that on the one-third of the packet of the powder milk it should be written that powder milk is not an alternative to mother’s milk, he said.

“At the moment, there is no monitoring body in provinces except Punjab but even that body could not reduce the trend of using powder milk. The law should be implemented all over the country,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2015

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