At Large : Breast is still best
Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
THE PHOTO of the President with a toddler in her arms, surrounded by other toddlers, their parents, health officials and legislators was a photo-op at its heartwarming best.
Cynics may sneer that this was but the latest in Malacañang's public relations drive, to paint a warmer, touchy-feely portrait of Ms Arroyo in sharp contrast to her often dour, businesslike demeanor. Still, I must give it to her that she offered her person, always a guarantee of front-page news especially now that she's fighting for her political life, to the noble cause of breastfeeding, the occasion being the launching of August as National Breastfeeding Month.
Breastfeeding is one of those causes that everybody assumes everybody else supports. Who, after all, would be against it? Don't the ads for infant formula even air a caveat at the end that "breastfeeding is best for baby until two years"? And yet, in the Philippines, despite the progress the government made in the 1980s and early 1990s in promoting breastfeeding, support for breastfeeding has steadily declined.
Both WHO and Unicef recommend that a mother exclusively breastfeed her child for at least six months for "optimal infant growth, development and health." In 1998, the average duration of exclusive breastfeeding in the Philippines was only 1.4 months (not even the full duration of the legal maternity leave). But by 2003, even this short duration was cut to 24 days -- less than a month!
Not only are fewer Filipino mothers choosing to breastfeed, those who do are breastfeeding for shorter periods.
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WE must read these dismaying statistics against the background of the even more dismaying state of the health of Filipino children below 5.
An estimated 16,000 child deaths per year can be traced to formula-feeding, WHO says. Overall, 12 percent of Filipino infants below one year are considered underweight, with the percentage rising to 32 percent among those who survive their first year. None of these babies would have died, or started off their life handicapped by malnutrition, if only their mothers had been breastfeeding them. Breast milk, after all, is considered the "perfect food," safe, clean and imbued with protective antibodies and perfectly balanced nutrients that not even all the advanced lab work of infant formula manufacturers can improve on or even equal.
Swayed by TV ads that show children nourished on artificial formula and "follow-through" brands marching in child-size togas or showing off their giftedness? Just remember that long-term studies show conclusively that breastfed babies grow up to be, on average, more intelligent, more verbal, more emotionally secure and healthier overall than those fed on powdered milk. In fact, breastfed children are three to five IQ points smarter than those fed on formula. And since breastfeeding promotes bonding between mother and child, breastfed children also score better on the EQ scale.
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IF the government would only resume its promotion programs for breastfeeding, the country even stands to meet its overall economic and development goals. Families would save P500 million on funeral expenses, for instance, while P1 billion could be saved from lost wages due to caring for sick infants. Families with sickly infants spend about P100 million in out-of-pocket expenditure for health care and basic drugs, and P50 million for hospitalization. The government itself spends P230 million on expenditures for subsidized hospitalization. In addition, Filipino families spend a total of P43 billion to buy infant formula, or an average of P4,000 a month per family.
Sen. Pia Cayetano, who has taken breastfeeding as one of the many health causes she champions as chair of the Senate committee on health, and whose office provided most of these statistics, says there's not even a need to enact a new law or measure to ensure that every Filipino baby enjoys the clear benefits of breastfeeding.
"Executive Order 51 (The Milk Code) and Republic Act 7600 (Rooming-in Act) pretty much contain all the provisions we need," she points out. The problem is that these "model laws" are barely enforced, with standards and monitoring allowed to steadily slip. Milk company representatives, it's been reported, are even now allowed to distribute "samples" of infant formula to mothers about to leave for home with their babies, even in government hospitals.
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OF course, no amount of laws, and no amount of policing or enforcing them, could force mothers to breastfeed if they've somehow put it in their minds that bottle-feeding is the way to go.
There are many reasons propounded for this strange and unhealthy preference, one of which is the successful marketing image created that bottle-feeding with infant formula is "modern" and "scientific" while breastfeeding is "old-fashioned" and "unsanitary."
Another, I believe, is the eroticism attached to women's breasts, with modern society viewing them as primarily serving a sexual function rather than a nourishing one. Recently, I guested on a radio talk show on NU 107 (a rock station, which earned me instant "cool" points with my children) together with Daphne Osena Paez. In the course of the interview, Daphne mentioned that she had breastfed her and husband TV reporter Patrick Paez's daughter, which of course got us started off on the benefits of breastfeeding. One caller wanted to know if it was true that "breastfeeding makes your nipples darker." We said that we knew of no studies proving or disproving this, though I had to ask why this should matter. "Who would see your nipples, after all, except your partner and baby?"
When we begin to value pert breasts and girlish nipples over our children's health, then I guess we're really in trouble.
