Health Ministry to regulate anti breastfeeding ads

Oct 05, 2009 News

Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, is pushing for the regulation of advertisements which promote breast milk substitutes and early childhood feeding products.

These ads, he said, do not assist the Health Ministry or the Caribbean in increasing exclusive breast feeding.

Minister Ramsammy raised this point at the recently held Caucus of Ministers of Health meeting in Washington, USA.

It was his position that the breastfeeding programme in the Caribbean and in the Americas is impeded because they confront the multi national producers of breast milk substitutes and early childhood feeding products such as bottled food that come along with extremely sophisticated marketing.

“We as professionals sometimes think that simply because we tell people that breast milk is good for you that people will do that…but after they leave the clinics, they go home and they put on the TV and they see these fancy ads…every mother wants to take the best care for their child and if they see these beautiful ads…then the work we do at the clinics by telling the people that it’s good for you isn’t going to work,” Minister Ramsammy told Kaieteur News in an exclusive interview on Saturday.

These companies he said are allowed to advertise freely and therefore influence the actions that families take.

“We need to replace these companies on the airwaves…we need to be there but we haven’t done a good job. We focus too much on technical matters, such as research and its findings and we have not employed a social marketing technique and strategy to influence people’s behaviour.”

In this regard, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are currently working on an international code to be developed which will regulate the practice of the advertisements of the products.

“For me, it shouldn’t be on the TV 50 times per day…we need to limit them to two ads per day or so.”

In Guyana, the Ministry of Health also has a small group working on policies that will lead to change in the way breast milk substitutes and food for early childhood practices are advertised.

According to Minister Ramsammy, within the next six months, a draft will be developed which will outline the policies for the ads.

Meanwhile, as it relates to exclusive breastfeeding, Minister Ramsammy said that statistics in the Caribbean have not increased. As a matter of fact, Dr. Ramsammy said there is a decrease.

However, in Guyana, exclusive breast feeding has increased. It was noted that it has passed the 50 per cent mark.

According to Minister Ramsammy, there has been enormous increase in educating the public on breast feeding.

However, he added that there is still a high number of children who are not breast fed.

In this regard, he explained that the biggest failure is within the wealthier groups, who happen to be the more educated.

According to Dr. Ramsammy, they tend not to breast feed.

“There is unfortunately a perception that breast feeding is for the poor and the uneducated. That’s the impression that comes from the ads and so on.”

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Health Ministry to regulate anti breastfeeding ads

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