Last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that, “Breastfeeding was in decline across Asia, with just 35 percent of mothers breastfeeding exclusively during their baby’s first six months.”
The Philippine government’s reaction was to impose a “strict marketing code on milk substitutes which have been strongly promoted by manufacturers.”
Manufacturers of the infant milk formula were prevented “from promoting their products for infants younger than one year old.”
High Court ruling
But the continued aggressive advertising by milk companies, in the perception of the protesters and health officials, has many mothers believing that formula milk is better than their milk.
Initially, the Supreme Court supported the government’s move, “but on appeal, it ordered a halt to the stiffer rules.”
The reality is that milk substitutes are flooding the market and the competition is growing keen, and yet prices have risen steadily to a point of becoming prohibitive to the average rural mother.
Yet they persist in buying them for their babies.
Why? This is a ticklish issue because it strikes into the heart of a sector where heavy foreign investments have been infused.
Lobby groups
Most milk products processors are from the United States, such as the Wyeth, Mead Johnson Nutritionals, and Abbot Laboratories, the reason why the Washington-based US Chamber of Commerce has intervened in the issue.
Likewise, domestic lobby groups like the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines has lodged a suit with the Supreme Court “challenging the government’s move.”
But a health department official noted the “dramatic decrease of our breastfeeding rates” and the “increase of the profits and sale of infant formula companies.”
The point at issue is really the profit motive of the investors.
WHO research
Yet WHO, in a statement, said “Research has shown that babies given breast milk develop fewer respiratory and intestinal diseases and those given formula have a greater chance of developing asthma, allergies and obesity.”
Studies undertaken by WHO showed that up to 1.45 million children die annually worldwide in poor countries because of low breastfeeding rates.
In the Philippines, only 35 of 100 mothers breastfeed their babies.
