HEALTH-ARGENTINA: More Women Breast Feeding Children

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 2 1999 (IPS) - The goal set by public health authorities in Argentina for women to breast feed their infants for up to four months is coming closer, thanks to a suprising increase in such mothers among the more wealthy class.

Susana Ageitos, an advisor at the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) for breast feeding, said in an interview that the objectives of the project to restore a culture of breast feeding was being achieved more effectively among the upper social sector of professional and informed women than among the “popular” sector.

“Poor women in general have low self-esteem, and they believe that a small can of milk…is better than the one that flows naturally from their bodies”, said Ageitos, who heads the Committee on Breast feeding of the Argentine Pediatric Society.

In addition to this self-perception is a lack of information and advice, lack of support for mothers and the easy access – often at no charge – to artificial milk.

“It’s not so much that these women work more than the others, but that they don’t have support”, she said.

Ageitos said officials were still far from achieving the goal of at least 60 percent of women feeding their children breast milk exclusively until four months, despite the efforts to demonstrate all the benefits that natural breast milk has for infants.

Breast milk contains water, minerals, protein, fat, carbohydrates and vitamins, in adequate quantity and quality for the development of a healthy child, she said. “It protects from diseases, establishes a stronger bond between mother and child and it is an economical nutrient.”

The World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Argentine Pediatric Society, however, believed the current aim of the programme in Argentina was still below desirable levels. A better goal was to have mothers breast feeing their children exclusively until six months, and adding other foods to breast milk for another 18 months.

However, in the province of Buenos Aires – the most populated district in the country and where the majority of poor families reside – only 18 percent of children are breast fed exclusively until they are four-months-old, according to a survey that was conducted in 1997.

The Pediatrics Society conducted another study that revealed that at six months, only three percent of babies in Argentina were fed exclusively with breast milk. A study in the province of Chubut – in the southern part of the country – revealed that among babies of four months, the percentage was 21, and only 2.5 percent at six months.

La Leche League – a non-governmental organization that advises mothers on issues of breast feeding – says that the argument most women give for abandoning breast feeding is that their milk does not satisfy their babies.

Members of the League help them to see that breast milk is the best food for children and that in general, after some advice on technique, there are other barriers of a psychological nature, such as stress, problems in the family or the relationship, or personal problems.

In Argentina, the authorities incorporated the International Trade Code on Substitutes for Breast Milk, which prohibits the publicity about substitute milk and requires the factories that make them to label their products “mother’s milk is the best food for babies.”

“There will always be money for publicity for industrial milk, even if it’s subtle. For example, we discovered an ad for milk on a vaccination calendar. In contrast, there is never enough money for campaigns on the importance of breast feeding children”, said Ageitos.

The culture of the bottle received a strong boost in the United States after World War II, when many women entered the labor market. In the 1970s, artificial milk reached Latin America as a symbol of “modernity” and “progress”.

Women who opted for the bottle were considered more modern and evolved than “traditional” mothers who maintained the custom of breast feeding. But now, those ideas are changing, and it is the women who are informed and modern who breast feed.

“For me it was burden because I would breast feed early in the morning, then go to the office where I would extract milk and save it for the next day. When I went back home I would breast feed again, and so on, because of course, now we know that that is the best thing for them”, said Ana Rielo, a lawyer.

Ageitos explained that things are beginning to change in many households, where the owner breast feeds her baby to the surprise of her less educated domestic employee, who considers the practice to be obsolete.

“Our goal is to get these poorer women, with all our support, to breast feed their children for the longest possible period of time, so that they spend less money on milk, in medicines and hospitals and be able to raise healthy and happy children”, she concluded.