Specific brand of formula milk recommended was Nestle -80%.
Often referred to as saviours, medical practitioners are respected the world over, but this image is often shattered by people whose malpractices put the lives of their patients at risk.
Going against what they are taught at medical and nursing colleges, a majority of doctors and nurses recommend formula milk brands in return for a commission from the companies, instead of promoting breastfeeding.
Due to lack of information, most parents go for formula milk simply because the doctor recommended it and Sabeen, a resident of Rawat, is no different. Worried about her five-month-old baby’s acute diarrhoea, she had brought him to the Children Hospital at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) for a check-up.
“I don’t know why my baby is suffering from diarrhoea and getting weaker every day because I only give him formula milk as recommended by the doctor,” she said, while comforting her crying baby. She added that due to her inability to afford formula milk, a pack of which costs Rs375 to Rs555 for local and foreign brands respectively, she mixes excess water in the powdered formula, decreasing the quantity of milk.
Most mothers aware of early initiation of breastfeeding
She seemed unaware of the fact that the water in the formula milk given t her baby could have caused diarrhoea.
Unethical promotion of formula milk and lack of awareness in the country have resulted in a sharp rise in the number of malnourished, underweight and stunted infants because it deprives them of the most nutritious diet there could be, mother’s milk.
According to The Pakistan Demographic Health Survey 2012-13, there has been an increase of 0.6 per cent in the exclusive breastfeeding rate, while the rate of bottle-fed babies has risen by 8.9 per cent since 2006.
BREASTFEEDING PRACTICES up to the age of six months
Recently, a report titled, “Breastfeeding: A roadmap to promotion and protection,” commissioned by Save the Children revealed that 84% of all mothers interviewed for the study were advised to give formula milk by health care providers.
“It’s unfortunate that despite a law that promotes breastfeeding, the practice goes unpunished and doctors continue to play with the lives of infants and get paid for it due to the absence of a board to address the issue at the federal level and sub-committees at the provincial level,” said Wing Director Dr Baseer Achakzai, who works under the Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination Nutrition. “Once the board and committees are constituted, practitioners can be jailed for six months, fined Rs.0.5 million and have their licenses cancelled.”
Mothers advised use formula milk for infanst under six months of age
Director of Health Awareness Society, Dr Samia Babar said, “Usually the moment a baby is born, nurses bottle-feed them, even before the parents get to see them. So when the mother tries to breastfeed the infant, they are unable to make the switch.”
Unaware that the Breastfeeding Ordinance 2002 discourages the sale of formula milk, a salesman at Sector F-11’s leading pharmacy, said they sell around 10-15 packs a day. “I don’t know about the law. I just see the doctor’s prescription and give customers what they come for,” said Bashir, not looking too concerned. His responsibility, after all, is to tend to his customers who can easily get the same product from one of the hundreds of pharmacies and shops.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 5th, 2013.
COMMENTS (18)
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Formula milk and bottle feeding is one the main cause of infant mortality in Pakistan. It courses diarrhea and various other diseases that ultimately lead to child’s death. Pakistan as a whole ranks 141st out of 182 countries in the Human Development Index (HDI), and is not on track to achieve MDG targets relating to malnutrition. Malnutrition rates among under five children in Pakistan are high. The Severe Stunting is 32.2%, wasting is 18.6% and underweight is 41.8%. Condition of Baluchistan’s child is rather worse in Balochistan over 50% of population exists below the poverty line. Who can’t not afford formula milk. It emerges as the most deprived province with over 91% of population residing in high-deprived districts On the other hand 63% of the population is food insecure whereas, only 20% of people have an access to safe drinking water. The Baluchistan’s Maternal Mortality Rate is 785/100000 live births, 36% of women are underweight, 48.1% of women have hemoglobin deficiency and 16.1% are iron deficient. (NNS 2011 and MICS 2007) Thus , the health authorities must take an immediate notice and action against subscribing and promoting the formula milk as a substitute to mother’s milk by the doctors.
We would like to commend on findings and should permute behaviors of our family physicians to facilitate the early initiation and long-term success of breastfeeding in their patients.we should need to designed a comprehensive campaign to permute Breastfeeding in Pakistan and also our Govt should take notice for the excessive or over promotion of formula milk and put this issue under proper legislation so that accountability can be ensured.
We need to put an end to the aggresive marketing campigns by Breast Milk Substitute companies. The legislation in place needs to be effectively implemented and health care providers need to held accountable if they deviate from thier mandate.
There must be a committee under supervision of Medical Superntendents of all teachning hospitals where it must be clearly directed in every monthly meeting minutes that the entry of medical representatives of Pharmaceutical companies in the the Peads wards is strictly prohibited during the OPD timmmings, who are the main propagators of the formula milk.
There must be a committee under supervision of Medical Superntendents of all teachning hospitals where it must be clearly directed in every monthly meeting minutes that the entry of medical representatives of Pharmaceutical companies in the the Peads wards is strictly prohibited during the OPD timmmings, who are the main propagators of the formula milk.
The statistics shows the better incidence of breastfeeding in rural areas than urban.One of the strong fact is the poverty in our rural settings.The households have big family size and thus unable to get good food for all ,the mothers prefer breastfeeding to their children even more than 2 years of age.In our urban settings ,the changing life style,instant formula milk provision are the precipitating factors discouraging the breastfeeding.Govt should take notice for the excessive or over promotion of formula milk and put this issue under proper legislation so that accountability can be ensured.
Shahzad Janjuah - please read the Report at http://www.savethechildren.net/sites/default/files/BF%20Report%20-%20EO.pdf
Dear Writer & All,
I am very sorry to see this insensitive state of affairs among those who we call and believe to be our (including our childrens) saviours. There are stories which are more horrific in their ending all just because of the corporate in-sensitivities.
None the less our governments do have a huge role to play if they are to secure the future of Pakistan, however just to add that legislation alone can not stop this unless we have the political will towards enforcement of the Law and that our elected representative along with the administrative decision makers are ready to say NO to the offers of the corporate.
I can continue on quoting different dimension of this but I want to commend the work of Sehrish Wasif and Save the Children for targeting this issue which has a tremendous impact on the lives of all children.
Special thanks to the Editors who allowed the publishing of this.
Good feature however, more details and explanation would be very helpful. Both health professionals and breastmilk substitutes producing companies are playing their role to promote bottle feeding in Pakistan which is highest in the region and increased in the past one decade from 31% to 41% according to famous PIMS Pediatrician Dr. Tabish Hazir who was one of the speakers in the report launching conference mentioned above. People like Dr Tabish are torch bearers who are creating awareness about the importance of breastfeeding. It was recommended during the conference that steps should be taken for the implementation of the Protection of Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition Ordinance 2002 and the Sindh and Punjab provincial laws. Students of Medical colleges should be taught about breastfeeding as there is low level of awareness among them as well. Media should play a role to create awareness about the importance of breastfeeding by producing features and write ups such is this one.
@Nadir, They are corporate, they will think the same way, its like Johnson giving free dresses to newborn babies across hospitals. The responsibility lies with physicians who are supposed to act for human life.
Quite the same way "doctors" have been promoting "germicide soaps" while hiding the fact that tehre are two types of bacteria on human skin, helpful and hramful, the helpful bacteria is necessary to protect human skin while harmful is not as harmful as portrayed but "germicide soaps" do not discriminate between harmful and helpful bacteria thus are in fact a threat to human skin health. Ordinary soap is good enough for cleansing hands after washroom visits etc but the "doctors" would continue "selling" "germicide" soaps. EVERYTHING IS FOR SALE IN PAKISTAN
Seriously, such a pathetic news article, no explanation of graphs. No extensive coverage of the issues and the side effects in the milk.
Pakistani newspapers, needs to learn a lot in terms of content in the news!!!
Not all doctors are bad,in army hospitals nurses feed the baby using a yringe so that breatfeeding is easy for the mother when she starts it, and the doctors strongly recimmend exclusive breastfeeding for six months.so i think itvaries from doctor to doctor and nt all doctors are bad.
My daughter was around one month old and had jaundice. Me and my family was aware that it happens sometimes and it is normal. Anyhow just for a routine checkup, we took her to best child specialist Dr. Wajahat in Sargodha. After examining he wrote a formula milk. We told him that she is on good mother's feed, even then he insisted to stop mother's feed for few days and have this formula milk. He even got her blood tested, I am still angry and not sure why he did that. Apparently there was no reason for the blood test. He told us none!!
Thank God sense prevailed in our family and we never took his prescribed formula milk. My daughter continued her mother's feed up until 22 months when we took the decision to stop it.
God save us from these pharma companies and these doctors who are promoting un natural and unhealthy habits.
And why not mention the companies promoting these brands? Nestle for example has been bribing lady health workers with Umrah tickets to push their brand of baby formula.
Just like doctors recommending C Sec Delivery to every pregnant woman these days to make easy money and save time. Doctors are part of the society and they are equally corrupt. they dont become docs to help the humanity as we are told but to make big bucks.
the quantity of medical colleges (in 1990's there were 7 in punjab,now 43) have increased,while the quality of education has decreased...(this is from a graduate of a medical college)