“The sole truly universal food for the entire human species.” That was how Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, former director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), described breast milk.
The WHO, along with two other United Nations agencies – the International Labor Organization (ILO) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) – said that the breast-feeding rate among mothers in the Philippines has significantly increased.
The three UN agencies cited recent figures released by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute showing breast-feeding rates to have increased from 36 percent in 2008 to 47 percent in 2011. In addition, the initiation of breast-feeding within one hour of delivery also rose to 52 percent in 2011 from 32 percent in 2008.
Some years back, the national breast-feeding rate was only 16 percent. Experts believe the low rate was due to advertisement made by the formula milk industry. It reportedly spent billions of pesos to promote its products through ads in televisions, radios, and newspapers.
“Advertising is the main way that big corporations convince mothers who can breast feed that the bottle is best,” writes Father Shay Cullen, of Preda Center, in his column.
“It became so effective that breast-feeding dropped and mortality rates for children one to two years old vastly increased.”
A global study showed the Philippines – with 82,000 annual deaths – as one of the countries accounting for 90 percent of deaths among those under five years old. The study also disclosed that only 16 percent of 4- to 5-month-old babies were breastfed exclusively while 30 percent were formula fed.
Most formula milk ads contain “false medical claims,” to quote the words of Dr. Nicholas Alipui, then UNICEF country representative.
Emphasizing “the vast difference” between breast milk and baby formula, he explained that milk from mothers had superior quality and contained nutrients and antibodies that would help raise children with strong immune systems.
“Breast milk is a living substance that is impossible to duplicate or replicate in industry…. No technology is capable of replicating or duplicating mother’s milk. That’s a fact. Any claim to the contrary is a lie,” Dr. Alipui pointed out.
By breast-feeding her baby, a mother can save money. Filipino mothers spend 21.5 billion pesos a year on infant formula. That’s about 2000 pesos a month per child, according to UNICEF.
As the best source of nutrition for babies, breast milk has been proven many times over that breast milk has components that help protect the child against infection and disease.
Dr. Nakajima said breast milk, until recently, has served as “a vital link for nutrition and survival across the entire span of human existence, nurturing the newborn, the infant, and the young child during the most vulnerable years, all the while providing a powerful source of protection from infectious disease.”
Breast milk, the United Nations health agency explains, is more than a simple collection of nutrients.
It contains all the essential nutrients like protein, fats, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and sugars, in exact proportion. It meets the needs of the growing infant at every stage.
For thousands of years, in all continents, babies have been breastfed for simple reason: mother’s milk is natural. “It comes ready-prepared, pure, warm, does not require mixing or sterilization and above all it is free.
It is a living substance,” says one physician.
“Mother’s milk is a living substance of great biological complexity that not only provides unique protection against disease, but also stimulates the baby’s own immune system,” the WHO points out.
The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, after which “infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods while breastfeeding continues for up to two years of age or beyond.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics pointed out the importance of breastfeeding.
It said: “Extensive research using improved epidemiologic methods and modern laboratory techniques documents diverse and compelling advantages for infants, mothers, families, and society from breastfeeding and use of human milk for infant feeding.
These advantages include health, nutritional, immunologic, developmental, psychologic, social, economic, and environmental benefits.”
