By Dr Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Representative to Bangladesh
World Breastfeeding Week has been observed in Bangladesh every year since 2010 after the Honorable Prime Minister declared it a national annual event in the country. This annual celebration is an opportunity to emphasize the importance of breastfeeding and advocate for the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding.
This year, the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) has announced the slogan for World Breastfeeding Week 2020- “Support breastfeeding for a healthier planet’’. The focus of WBW 2020 is aligned with thematic area 3 in WBW-SDG 2030 and is on the impact of infant feeding on the environment/climate change and the imperative to protect, promote and support breastfeeding for the health of the planet and its people.
Breastmilk is environmentally safe; produced and delivered without pollution, contains antibodies and other immunological benefits that can give babies a healthy boost, help to protect against respiratory diseases. Breastmilk is the best natural source of nutrition for infants, including infants whose mothers have confirmed or suspected coronavirus infection. As long as an infected mother takes appropriate precautions, she can breastfeed her baby.
A new report by WHO, UNICEF, and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) reveals that despite countries’ efforts to stop the harmful promotion of breast-milk substitutes, they are still falling short in protecting parents from misleading information. Anecdotal evidence also appears to show the aggressive marketing is growing, especially more during this time of the pandemic that highlights the need for stronger legislation and enforcement of laws to protect families from false claims about the safety of breast-milk substitutes. Moreover, these infant formula milk production and consumption generates greenhouse gas emission which accelerate global warming, requires mass production by the dairy industry, with plastic and other waste and degradation of land and waterway. This makes urgent the investigation of its environmental costs, including greenhouse gas (GHG) implications.
Bangladesh has developed monitoring tools and work plan for Breast-Milk Substitutes (BMS) Act 2013 monitoring, in-line with the Network for Global Monitoring and Support for Implementation of the International Code (NetCode) with the purpose of strengthening capacity for Code monitoring, adherence and implementation. Now, it is time for full adherence and implementing this tool for strengthening breastfeeding promotion and protection activities against misleading information. Also strong public health response is needed to address environment and health issues combined with economic evidence of the negative impact of formula milk products.
WHO calls on coordination among agencies and commits to further support the Government of Bangladesh to protect and promote breastfeeding. I wish World Breastfeeding Week 2020 all the success.
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