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World News
Breast-feeding in Venezuela is a State policy
By Lena Jahn
ABN
Saturday, Aug 9, 2008

Caracas (ABN) - Fighting for a legal framework which protects and fosters breastfeeding in Venezuela has been one of the most humanist lines of work that the Bolivarian Government has included on its social agenda.

This information is proved, among other issues, due to fact that Venezuelan mothers' disposition to breastfeed their children increased in 27% since the year 2006, in accordance with a research about breastfeeding and nutrition of children under two years old, which was carried out by Venezuela's National Institute of Nutrition (INN, for its Spanish abbreviation).

In fact, during the last five years, there have been recorded relevant progresses on the legal framework that protects this practice. One of the most recent achievements is carried through the Law for Promotion and Breastfeeding, published on the Official Gazette from September 6th 2006, which regulations are currently created by the Parliament's Committee for Women, Family and Youth.

Simultaneously, the Ministry of People's Power for Health counts with its own tools to contribute on the matter. One of them is Resolution 405, oriented to rule the letterings on infant formulas through the correct use of labels on products that substitute breast milk in order to remind buyers that this one is irreplaceable and that it constitutes the ideal food for children under two years old.

Therefore, there is the Resolution 444, aimed to rule, promote, protect and foster the breastfeeding policy and practice in eevry health establishments as excellent strategy for the quality of life and health, which protects the rights of children and women.

Likewise, through joint resolution between the ministries of Health and of Work and Social Security, a working mother is warranted the right to two daily allowed times to feed her baby, half an hour each in case there is a breastfeeding room on the workplace, or an hour each on the contrary.

Furthermore, Venezuelan mothers and their children count, in matters of breastfeeding, with the legal support of instruments like the Organic Law for the Protection of Children and Adolescents (LOPNA), on its articles 43, 44, 45 and 46; and the Organic Law for the Women's Right to a Life Free of Violence, on its article 51, numeral 3, regarding obstetric violence in the case of hindering the baby's breastfeeding immediately after childbirth.

Added to this, the Law of Protection of the Family, Motherhood and Fatherhood envisages 14 continual days of maternity leave for the father, so he is granted a year of labor immovability after his son's birth, while for the mother this period has been broaden to two years.

All these measures constitute contributions of Venezuela's State to draw an increasing harmonious scene, where mothers can understand the breastfeeding as an inviolable right and they can find, among the different norms, the unbreakable tools to make it count.

Wrong beliefs

There are many myths in relation to the practice of breastfeeding, result of wrong cultural elements which have been passing from generation to generation. Among them highlights the belief that the new born needs formulas to complement nursing.

However, “It is proved that the baby breast fed, exclusively, frequently and without restrictions during the first six months can achieve an integral development.“ The statement was issued by the coordinator of the national breastfeeding program of the Ministry of Health, Yadira Rodriguez, who affirmed that 100% of the infant nutritional requisites are warranted in this period with breastfeeding.

She explained that breastfeeding should continue complementarily since the six months and up to two years old, joined to regional foods -as the fruit in season- in order to make paps, purees and creams, among others, so the mother will not need to spend in formulas that imitate her own milk.

“It is necessary that the child is breast fed at least up to the 18 months because he receives fatty acids essential to form his brain,“ remarked Rodriguez, and she insisted on the importance of having regulations to protect children from inadequate commercialization of industrialized products, which discourage breastfeeding.

“The formulas sold in supermarkets and drugstores are very expensive and they cannot be compared, from an immunologic point of view, to breastfeeding, which protects the child from malnutrition, infant diabetes and cardiovascular disorders, among other diseases,“ she said.

However, the expert emphasized the need of avoiding the excess of cow milk after the two years old, because it might produce renal lesions on children.

“A yogurt or 30 grams of fresh cheese are equivalent to a glass of milk. If I give him one of these foods, then I eliminate the glass of milk. It is an exaggerated and wrong habit,“ she said, at the same time she recalled that it is inadvisable to give whole milk to children under two years old because it creates gastrointestinal hemorrhages.
Another very deep-rooted myth is the one that indicates that the mother who breast feeds the baby should eat too much. That is not true. It is required a nutrition like the one taken during the pregnancy: balanced and combining all the nutrition groups.

“The extra contribution of energy that a breastfeeding mother needs is 700 calories; 200 out of these calories come from the fat accumulated under her arms and around her hips since the seventh month of pregnancy. Thus, what she needs is 500 additional calories, which is translated into a pair extra of snacks or in two glasses of milk, for example, always avoiding canned foods, alcoholic drinks and too spicy foods,“ expressed the official.

She explained that it is likewise false the belief that a mother should stop breastfeeding in the case she gets pregnant, as well as the mentioned incompatibility with some medicines.

“There are a few incompatible medicines, such as those for anticancerous treatment or those used to treat goiter,“ she affirmed.

Among the mistaken beliefs it is also common to hear that breastfeeding is rejected for some mothers due to the shape or size of their breasts or their nipple.

“99% of women are able to breastfeed,” stated Rodriguez, who also affirmed that the key is the method employed. However, she made clear that it is not a straitjacket, because there is not a unique position to breastfeed.

“The ideal position is that one which results most comfortable for the mother and the baby. If it hurts, then it is being done incorrectly,” she said, and she explained that the safest way to breastfeed is taking the breast with the hand forming the shape of a C, keeping the thumb way from the rest of the fingers, while leaving space for the nipple, instead of opening the fingers in the way of a scissor.

The promotion lasts for the whole year

As part of the celebration of the World Breastfeeding Week, which is celebrated since 1992 between August 01st up to the 7th, different Venezuelan public and private organizations carry out activities concerning the topic. Nevertheless, the national government and many organizations carry out a permanent effort during the whole year.

Such is the case of the National Institute of Nutrition, which since the decade of the fifties iS implementing actions that protect and promote breastfeeding as essential strategy to reduce mother-child morbidity and mortality.

The technical director of the above mentioned institute, which is ascribed to the Ministry of Health, Diana Calderon, expressed that there are workshops frequently carried out nationwide addressed to breastfeeding supporters, protected under the legal framework that protects the legality of this right of mothers and sons.

“There is too much misinformation, that is why we work with the health committees of communal councils, with neighbor associations, the health personnel of the different institutions, with mothers directly (...) It is the State competing against the capital markets of the pharmaceutical and food industry, which foster the use and abuse of feeding formulas,” she said.

Calderon described as the ant's work, the task of spreading truthful and opportune information to mothers and their relatives. “People are more informed today than a few years ago, but it is not enough,” he confessed.

The statement is shared by the official of the Ministry of Health, Yadira Rodriguez, who expressed that teaching the advantages of breastfeeding since early education can be enhanced with the people's knowledge.

“We have to update the study program of the Medicine school and to promote breastfeeding from every context, not only in the health area, but also in Sociology, Law, Psychology, Journalism, because it is an issue that can go through all the areas,” she remarked.

Likewise, she urged to train every time more nurses and dietitians on health centers, aiming to ease the affection mother-son through breastfeeding during the first hour after childbirth.

“There are many hospital routines insisting on separating a mother from her son and send him into nursery units, that is unnatural. Having a law to regulate this situation, the mother can claimed to not separate the baby from her, but she has to know that law,” stated Rodriguez.

In that regard, the State's investment on informative and documentary programs is still a needed policy and, thus, the representative of the Ministry of Health coincides with Calderon regarding the importance of the role performed by the community.

“The health committees, relatives, close friends should care about pregnant women are under supervision, motivate them to attend at the nearby health center in order to receive information and support about the prenatal and postnatal. A controlled pregnancy is a happy birth,” she said.

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