Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

`Need to extend maternity leave'

Staff Reporter

Thiruvananthapuram: Working women should have extended maternity leave so that their babies do not have to be weaned off mothers' milk in the initial months itself, Minister for Health P.K. Sreemathy has said.

She was inaugurating World Breastfeeding Week celebrations organised by the State Health Department here on Friday.

Even though the women in Kerala are well aware of the benefits of breastfeeding infants, working mothers who have to return to work after maternity leave and those working in unorganised sectors are unable to breastfeed their babies beyond a short period, the Minister said.

Women got extended maternity leave in many Western nations. However, this might not be possible in Kerala, she said.

This year's breastfeeding week celebrations focus on the dissemination of information about the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Food (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 1992.

The Act prohibits the promotion of all kinds of foods for babies below two years of age; the advertising of infant milk substitutes, infant foods, feeding bottles and the use of pictures of infants or mothers on the labels of infant milk substitutes or infant foods. According to the Act, infant foods can only be sold for consumption of babies above six months. This is in accordance with the resolution of the World Health Assembly, 2001, that infants should be exclusively breastfed in the first six months and that complementary food should be introduced only after this period.

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