Based on official statistics, at least seven in 10 new mothers in Taguig City breast-feed their babies, according to Mayor Lani Cayetano.
Cayetano credits this unusual high rate to the strong and sustained collaboration among city executives, health staff and community volunteers to promote breast-feeding.
“In asking for their support,” she said, “I told them that more than agreeing to implement the campaign, it was more important to put the advocacy to heart.”
Last year, Taguig began to implement the Breast-feeding TSEK (Tama, Sapat at Eksklusibo) campaign to promote “exclusive breast-feeding,” which refers to nourishing babies with only mother’s milk and nothing else during the first six months of life.
Funded by the Spanish government and the European Union, the TSEK campaign is managed by the Department of Health in various pilot cities and supported by a joint UN program of the World Health Organization, Unicef and the International Labor Organization.
A local nongovernment organization, Arugaan, helps train breast-feeding peer counselors in target communities.
According to Dr. Erlinda Rayos del Sol, assistant city health officer, exclusive breast-feeding rate in Taguig rose from 68 percent in 2010 to 73 percent in 2011 based on the latest Family Health Survey by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology.
The current national exclusive breast-feeding rate is 47 percent.
While the city has had much success in getting mothers in communities to breast-feed, this is not quite the case with working mothers, Dr. Rayos del Sol said. “One reason for this is the pressure on mothers to return to work a month or so after delivery to help sustain the family income.”
Because of this, there is still a need to intensify efforts to counsel working mothers on ways to sustain breast-feeding even after they have returned to work, she added.
Joann Osorio-Espiritu, city breast-feeding program coordinator, said they would further address working mothers’ concerns by convincing more private businesses to have a breast-feeding station in their workplaces.
“This, after all, is already mandated by national and city laws and these establishments may just be needing a little reminder,” she said.
For the general public, she noted that some commercial establishments in Taguig, including at least one big shopping mall, have already allocated enclosed spaces for breast-feeding.
Also, there are restaurants in the city that already proudly display the sign: “Breast-feeding welcome here.”
To set an example for its corporate constituents, Taguig City Hall itself has put up a model breast-feeding station in its premises— for its employees as well as for mother taxpayers and other guests.
Cayetano said the city’s investments in these campaigns would more than pay off in terms of lessening the burden on the city’s health care system. “A well-nourished citizenry translates to healthier individuals and therefore less people lining up at health centers to seek medical treatment,” she said.