Press Release
August 6, 2007

EMPLOYERS SHOULD SET UP FACILITIES IN WORK PLACES
WHERE MOTHERS CAN BREAST-FEED THEIR BABIES -- PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today backed the setting up of "lactation stations" in the work places and even in public places where working mothers can breastfeed their babies.

Pimentel said the lactation stations should be adequately equipped with the necessary tools and facilities by government agencies concerned, as well as by private firms that employ the workers.

The establishment of lactation stations is provided for in Senate Bill 1767 already passed by the Senate and House of Representatives in the 13th Congress although it failed to pass through the conference committee before the legislature adjourned last June.

The minority leader made the suggestions in a speech at the celebration of Breastfeeding Week sponsored by the Philippine Children's Medical Center at Quezon City.

"I hope, however, that in the not too distant future, we can see these amenities provided in the work places so that mothers can breastfeed their babies even as they work."

The senator from Mindanao said that more and more mothers now feel obliged to work to raise family income. But he said the work place is not generally designed to allow mothers to breastfeed their babies.

In fact, he said mothers working outside their home are dissuaded by circumstances not to bear children, adding that this is a problem that needs to be met squarely.

Pimentel expressed optimism that "we can overcome" the lobby of those that discourage mothers from breastfeeding their children.

Afterall, he said Congress had passed Republic Act 7600 in 1992 providing incentives to government and private health institutions that promote breastfeeding practices and provide breastfeeding facilities for their patients who deliver babies in their institutions.

"In all honesty, I find it surprising that the burden of providing that breastfeeding is good for infants is apparently being put on the shoulders of those who use it instead of being placed on the shoulders of those who advocate other means of child-feeding," Pimentel said.

He cited a conclusion of the Canadian Pediatric Society that breastfeeding infants is the best way of feeding the child at the very least for the first six months of his or her life.

According to Pimentel, the World Health Organization and the American Society of Pediatrics have endorsed the concept that breastfeeding babies is good for the mental and physical health of the infants especially in their first year.

He said studies have also shown that the mother's milk is the best first defense against diarrhea which is a major cause of deaths of infants and allergence materials. It is also a good sources of antibodies and immune nutrients that help babies grow up healthy.

"It goes without saying that a mother's milk is intended by nature to suit her baby's needs," Pimentel said.

"I guess the materialistic philosophy of life where money has become the gauge of success has caused the shift from breastfeeding babies to bottle-feeding them."

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