Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori had “zero knowledge” of the issue when he refused to give assent to the Sindh Protection and Prohibition of Breastfeeding and Young Children Nutrition Bill 2023 passed by the Sindh Assembly last month, Director General Health Services Dr Baseer Achakzai said.
“Baby food industry tried to mislead the prime minister and other officials regarding the breastfeeding law passed by Sindh and we tried to present it in the Parliament in the center. The Sindh governor had zero knowledge of the issue and he relied on the information provided by the baby food industry,” he told an awareness and advocacy seminar in connection with World Breastfeeding Week 2023 in Islamabad.
The seminar was organized by the Nutrition Wing of Ministry National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination in collaboration with Unicef, World Health Organization (WHO) and World Food Programme. It was addressed by leading gynecologists, pediatricians, nutritionists as well as health journalists and prominent anchors.
Dr Achakzai maintained that federal health ministry wants to replicate Sindh’s breastfeeding law in the center, and vowed to use all the resources at hand to get the law passed by the federal government.
“The industry tried to mislead our secretary and then prime minister, but they referred the matter to the health ministry and we rejected all their objections,” he said and added that the health ministry wanted to engage media as well as youth of the country to promote breastfeeding in the country.
Khawaja Masuood Ahmed, national coordinator nutrition, said 300 to 500 billion rupees are annually spent on formula milk, and on an average, a family spends around Rs300,000 on formula milk to feed a baby.
“Pakistan is facing a huge economic loss due to the import of formula milk while it also puts heavy financial burden on the families, which opt to give formula milk to the babies instead of mother’s feed,” he said and deplored that the baby food industry was using all legal and illegal means to prevent the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding in Pakistan.
He maintained that around 15 percent children were overweight for consuming formula milk while 28.9 percent children were overweight in the country. He called for increasing awareness among women regarding the importance of breastfeeding for reducing infant mortality and preventing children from diseases like diarrhoea and recurrent infections.
Khawaja Masuood also highlighted the tactics of the baby food industry, saying the so-called Baby Food and Nutrition Council (BNFC) of the baby food industry tried to mislead the prime minister and requested that the Protection of Breastfeeding & Child Nutrition Ordinance 2002 and Rules 2009 be brought on the agenda of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for harmonization of local codes across all provinces.
Renowned paediatrician and HOD of Pediatric Department at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Dr Maqbool Hussain deplored that the baby food industry has agents in the nurseries of hospitals which give bottle feed to newborns when they are separated from their mothers after Cesarean section. He called for increasing awareness regarding the importance of breastfeeding among parents.
“At PIMS, we apprehended a so-called dietitian who was not on hospital’s payroll but she had a permanent place inside the children’s ward and was convincing and prescribing formula milk to new mothers. We took her to task but such people are everywhere, at every health facility,” he added.
Leading gynaecologist Dr Syeda Batool Mazhar said mothers who deliver babies through C-section can feed their children as they are given spinal anesthesia these days. She added that babies should be returned to their mothers as soon as a mother is shifted to the room or wad from the operation theater for breastfeeding.
She criticized the paternity leave, saying fathers in the Pakistani society create hurdles for the new mothers in feeding their children and instead they compel their wives to perform household chores instead of taking care of their children.
The seminar was also addressed by prominent anchor from Pakistan Television Tauseeq Haider, who called for educating morning show hosts regarding the importance of breastfeeding while a health journalist called for capacity building of health journalists as well as using social media to promote breastfeeding in the country.
Dr Saba Shuja from Unicef talked about steps taken by them for the promotion and protection of breastfeeding across Pakistan, while Dr Zunaira Khan, a consultant lactation management, called for facilitating young mothers in feeding their babies at workplaces.
