Proceedings of the Workshop on Breastfeeding and Supplementary Foods Bangkok Thailand November 17-18 1979.

This report presents the proceedings from the workshop on breastfeeding and weaning foods. 10 countries in Asia and the Western Pacific were represented including Bangladesh Burma India Indonesia Malaysia Nepal Pakistan Philippines and Sri Lanka. The workshop participants cited multifactorial causes in the decline in breastfeeding including urbanization working mother divorce insufficient breast milk and others. Prevalence surveys conducted in the countries show that although there is an erosion in the pattern of breastfeeding among rural mothers breastfeeding is still noticeably higher among the rural than city dwellers. Changes were recommended in 3 major areas: 1) education of all categories of health professionals the educational curricula for health personnel should include education in the physiology and management of lactation and the preparation and timely introduction of appropriate weaning foods; 2) nutritional measures which would improve both maternal and child health; and 3) legislation regarding maternity and lactation benefits as well as provision of creches and day care centers for working mothers. Other suggested activities included: 1) the monitoring of the activities of food companies regarding sales and promotional activities and 2) need for mothers groups or associations to act as support mechanisms for mothers who wished to breastfeed. The breastfeeding programs of various countries were found to be at different levels of development depending on the support of the government political structure and environmental difficulties. All participants unanimously stressed the need to improve the pattern of breastfeeding in their countries.