MEDIA WATCH: Silence surrounds failed culture

Hoyporhoy La Prensa Dec.27

IN LATIN AMERICA and the Caribbean, Panama is the third lowest country  in percentage in the task of nursing. The weakness of the culture of breastfeeding threatens child health and emotional benefits to the mother-child relationship. 

Just 21.4% of Panamanian mothers breast feed the first six months, in contrast to the recommendation to provide this food exclusively as part of the diet for  the first two years. Panama already has, since 1995, a law that mandates that all workplaces with more than 20 women working there have available an area for expressing breast milk. This legal obligation is not met and there is no excuse for the government, private companies, medical associations, women’s groups and unions to continue to maintain silence about the failure of so sensitive an issue to the present and future of the family. Healthy, happy and smart children depend on good nutrition based on breast milk.