Senator wants breastfeeding stations in public, workplaces

Senator Pia Cayetano took her breastfeeding advocacy to Cebu yesterday when she pushed for the establishment of lactation stations in public places and workplaces where nursing mothers can breastfeed their babies.

Cayetano, as the Senate’s health committee chairperson, said she will push for the approval of her proposed bill, Senate Bill No. 761, or the “Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act,”

The bill requires employers to give their lactating employees a paid break time so that these women would be encouraged to continue breastfeeding their babies when they go back to work after delivery.

This provision would give no more excuse to mothers not to breastfeed their babies while they are working, Cayetano said at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, where she graced the inauguration of the hospital’s obstetrics ward.

The putting up of the new OB ward of VSMMC was partly financed from the P3 million funds that Senator Cayetano gave to the hospital last year.

In her short talk after the inauguration, the female senator told mothers, health professionals and students to commit themselves in promoting breastfeeding by educating everybody on its benefits.

“The success of breastfeeding depends on the information that you give to your patients. That’s why I want the barangay health workers, doctors, nurses and other health professionals to give full support to mothers. Health professionals should give the right information,” Cayetano said.

She also advised mothers to feed their babies, during the first six months, exclusively with breastmilk so that their children would have the right nutrition and protection from illnesses.

“Ang pagsilang ng baby ay decision natin kaya obligasyon natin ang pagpapakain sa kanila. Nararapat lang na bigyan natin ng sapat na nutrisyon ang ating mga anak. And the best food for the baby is breastmilk,” Cayetano said.

Cayetano said that breastfeeding practices have been at an alarming downtrend so she has been pushing for the revival of such practice in the country.

“Health doesn’t have to be expensive. I believe that’s what all these measures are all about,” said Cayetano about her breastfeeding advocacy. 

The senator has led a series of community seminars on breastfeeding in Cebu since Friday until today, as part of the observance of the “National Breastfeeding Month” this August.  — Wenna A. Berondo/RAE