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My follow-up comment on the MILK CODE

Let me quote Raul Pangalangan in his column today at http://www.inquirer.net/


Marketing by milk formula companies has become increasingly aggressive. The number of women who breastfeed their infants has gone down dramatically in just a few years, while the sales and profits of the companies have risen. The irony, in the words of Sen. Edgardo Angara, author of the Rooming-In and Breastfeeding Act of 1992, is that each year we import $400 million in milk formula, but spend P536 million to bury 15,000 bottle-fed babies, and another P3.5 billion to treat infant malnutrition and diarrhea. We needlessly fritter away our foreign exchange reserves. We forget nature’s first form of immunization, enabling the infant to fight serious infection. We forgo the benefits of birth spacing as a form of natural birth control.


WHAT I THINK ABOUT THE ISSUE:


I think Senator Angara should first find out if hospitals abide by the ROOMING-IN AND BREASTFEEDING ACT. I gave birth three times in different hospitals: First at Mother of Perpetual Help Hospital in Angeles City, then at Fatima Medical Center in Valenzuela City, and the latest was 6 months ago at Angeles City Medical Center. None of the three hospitals encouraged or reminded me to breastfeed. At the Fatima Medical Center, the nurses gave me a small baby bag with ENFALAC and brochures on bottle-feeding inside. In Angeles Medical Center, the nurse instructed my husband to purchase ENFALAC also. And with my first born, my doctor then suggested that I buy S26 for my baby. So, how can mothers be encouraged to breastfeed if the doctors and hospitals seem to advocate bottle-feeding?


I remember seeing a poster on the rules on breastfeeding when I was at the delivery room of Angeles Medical Center. That was when I found out about the BREASTFEEDING ACT. But the poster, obviously, was just a poster then. No hospital staff implemented the ACT. If I were uneducated, how would I know what colostrum and mother's milk can do to increase baby's resistance against all sorts of diseases?


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THE REAL PROBLEM is not whether the mothers should breastfeed or bottle-feed babies. The real problem is the aggressive and manipulative ads of milk substitutes. I think the government should not totally ban milk formula ads. But these ads have to pass government approval prior to being aired.
If milk formula ads would be totally banned from media, then, how would the mothers who choose to breastfeed learn about the available milk formula that is appropriate for their babies? The freedom of choice shouldn't be curtailed. Mothers have the right to choose and the milk formula companies should be responsible enough to TELL ONLY THE TRUTH about their products.

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