Child Development and Public Health

                Breastfeeding is a topic that is important to me for personal and professional reasons. Personally, when I had my daughter, I wanted to breastfeed. I had read about how it was the healthiest thing you could put in your child’s body, how it boosted their immunities, helped them gain weight at a healthy level, and helped to support a healthy parent/child attachment. Building a relationship with my daughter was very important to me. Keeping her healthy was also extremely important especially since she would be placed in child care by 3 months of age.

                Professionally, I wanted to breastfeed because I teach pregnant mothers about breastfeeding and its benefits. Having personal knowledge of those benefits, allows me to add personal anecdotes to my teachings.  It also gives more concrete examples to prove how important it is.

                Here is where it gets complicated and a little sad. I chose to breastfeed because it was healthy for my child. After five weeks, I had a medical problem that prevented me from producing enough breast milk to sustain her. Therefore, I had to supplement with formula. After two weeks of that, my milk completely dried up. I was very upset that I was unable to breastfeed longer.  My doctor reassured me that while I did not breastfeed very long, I breastfed long enough to get her some of my immunities to protect her from some illnesses. His words made me feel a bit better. I want to promote breastfeeding with new mothers, but my experience taught me to also support the mothers who could not or chose not to breastfeed.

This is a photo the day I came home from the hospital, breastfeeding my daughter.

                I chose to look at breastfeeding practices in the Philippines as compared to the United States. According the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the United States statistics are as follows:

• 73.9% were ever breastfed
• 43.4% were still breastfeeding at 6 months of age
• 22.7% were breastfeeding at 1 year of age
• 33.1% were exclusively breastfed through 3 months of age
• 13.6% were exclusively breastfed through 6 months of age

In contrast to these statistics, we look at the percentages for breastfeeding in the Philippines found on the UNICEF website:

·         54% had early initiation of breastfeeding

·         34% aged  less than 6 months that were exclusively breastfed

·         58% aged 6-9 months were breastfed with complimentary food

·         34% were still breastfeeding from 20-23 months of age

Breastfeeding in the Philippines is encouraged so much that there is a law called Republic Act No. 7600: The Rooming-In and Breastfeeding Act of 1992. Here is an excerpt from the Act, “SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy.- The Senate adopts rooming in as a national policy to encourage, protect and support the practice of breastfeeding. It shall create an environment where basic physical, emotional, and psychological needs of mothers and infants are fulfilled through the practice of rooming-in and breastfeeding.” (Dept of Health, 1992) The Philippines value breastfeeding as a basic need of mothers and infants.
                While the two countries differ in their collective value of breastfeeding, individual persons within the countries may have differing values. I believe that “breast is best” but I must be respectful of the fact that some women cannot breastfeed for medical reasons and some cannot breastfeed for economical reasons. Early educators can encourage it as best we can by promoting the benefits, but we must also support mother’s choices on breastfeeding or bottle feeding.

References

At a glance: philippines. (2010, March 02). Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/philippines_statistics.html
Department of Heath, Republic of the Philippines, Health Programs. (1992). Promotion of breastfeeding program/ mother and babyfriendly hospital initiative Retrieved from http://www.doh.gov.ph/health_programs/breastfeeding
U.S Department of Heath and Human Servies, Center for Disease Control. (2010). Breastfeeding: frequently asked questions Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/faq/index.htm