Govt must help to encourage breastfeeding: Expert

All women are able to breastfeed new born infants, and mothers should not be misled by excessive infant formula advertising, Indonesian Breastfeeding Mothers’ Association (AIMI) chairwoman Mia Sutanto says.

A growing number of infant formula advertisements on Indonesian television has tended to influence mothers into not breastfeeding their babies, Mia said Monday in Jakarta.

“I understand that some women can’t produce breast milk because they have abnormalities in their endocrine systems. But this only affects one mother in 1,000, so basically, all mothers should be able to breastfeed,” she said.

Mia added that postnatal women needed support from close friends and family in this regard.

Babies should only consume breast milk, and not formula, at least for the first 6 months of their lives, she said.

“Breast milk contains all the nutrition babies need. At this age their digestion system has not fully developed, so if we gave them supplementary foods, they can get sick.”

From six months old and up, babies can begin to consume homemade supplementary foods, with ingredients such as corn and sago. However, breastfeeding should continue until babies reach two years of age.

Mia said she hoped the government could provide social facilities to encourage breastfeeding among Indonesian mothers.

Maternity leave periods should change, she said. Pregnant women normally receive three months’ paid maternity leave. Mia said that in some cases women were taking this time off work in two terms, with six weeks before birth and another six after.

“We should breastfeed exclusively for six months. But in reality, career women only [six weeks] in the post-natal period, so this is impossible,” she said. (fem)