Has anyone posted about the (new) Indonesian law on breastfeeding?

[UpSinceCrapOClock]

Just wondered what people thought about this ?

A law stating that all babies should be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months, otherwise there's a hefty fine or prison sentence.

I can see that they want to promote and encourage breastfeeding, especially because of the conditions described in the article, but surely there are better ways to do this? And how on earth would you enforce it? And what about mums who can't breastfeed, or abandoned babies, or babies whose mums died in childbirth - will the government set up something like wetnurse system for those babies? What would happen in those circumstances?

i think a better starting point would be to

1. ban formula advertising
2. extend paid mat leave to 6 months at least

if they wanted to achieve a better result.

Exactly, especially the extended maternity leave.

I think that's shocking - really??
Off to read article now

this is targetting breastfeeding at the expense of parenting.
Lots of babies will be ebf for 6 months, good for them. The ones that don't might be separated from their mothers by a jail cell - how is that in their best interests in any way?

bump

I know - it just all seems so badly thought out. Like the only message is the health benefit of breastmilk as you say, at the expense of parenting, but also the expense of so many other things - stress levels of mothers of newborns for a start. That's hardly going to help them get breastfeeding established, is it?

The onus is completely on the mother here, rather than looking at the environment, such as employers and employees rights (maternity leave, opportunity to breastfeed at work), education and support to encourage breastfeeding amongst other things.

and the right of a mother to choose. There is an argument that a baby has a right to bm, which I sympathise with, but I struggle to completely endorse it when it takes away the mother's right to choose.

The way I read it, it was saying that there would be fines for anyone "who got in the way" of 6 month EBF - specifically formula advertising and employers.

Didn't say anything about individual women being prosecuted

you are right!

I was so incensed by the idea that I read it too quickly while simultaneously fumbling around for my proverbial soapbox.

Phew - that seems much better.

well surely if the mother chooses not to, she is standing in the way of it?

:o must also learn to preview posts before pressing send.

That should have been "must learn to read properly"

It's obviously cup of tea o'clock.

I suspect it will be the mother who'll have to make the complaint under the new law Stealth, and this will:

a) make it very unlikely that she'll try to prosecute herself

and

b) make it fairly toothless as it looks like a lot of the problem is women having to return to work before 6 months and a woman is unlikely to report her employer for fear of losing her job.

Classic isn't it - criminalise mothers rather than address the things that stop them doing what is right for their babies.
Of course if you live in a slum and you understand the dangers of giving anything other than breastmilk to your baby you would do as much as you could to ensure he is ebf. Mothers generally want what is best for baby - fining anyone preventing a mother breastfeeding might be a better approach - but to fine a woman who has to return to work because she has no money for giving her child formula - FGS

fair enough suzi!

Oh! I didn't read it properly either - wondered why it was so positive about it

Depends on the actual wording of the law. The article mentions that

"The law will have detailed steps on how companies must provide facilities for nursing mothers to breastfeed as well as to pump and store their breast milk"

and

"It will also regulate milk companies, to ensure they don't give incentives to health care workers to push their products."

but no mention of a choice made by the mother in all of this. If the law doesn't specifically mention mothers that 'stand in the way', then could such a mother be prosecuted? Is the government just assuming that the mothers will all want to breastfeed. And again, mothers who can't breastfeed, what about them? Could they be prosecuted?

i wonder if gisele will move there...

Cross-posted - that would make sense Suzi, if they are relying on the mothers as the ones to complain.

Given that Inodnesia is the largest muslim country (in terms of percentage of populace who are muslim) I wonder how this fits with mothers having freedom of movement and being able to feed in public? Are they expected to stay in the house or never go anyhere that isn't within a few paces of a female-only feeding room for the whole six months?

Muslim countries (from what I've read - no personal experience) are absolutely fine with women bf in public. Go figure.

In a way, i can see why they want to introduce this law. Formula is so widely available these days, and i think breastfeeding is starting to be the minority.

However, i don't think it's enforcable. I also think it is very unfair for the Mum's that encounter problems.

Or does this law ony aply to people that just chose not to breastfeed?

Ally

Hmm...not very clear how this will really work.

I like the principle that no one should stand in the way of bf, but don't quite feel like this is what this law is saying.

TBH i'm a bit dissapointed in the BBC that the article is so vague (though think I may have half heard something on the world service about this last night)

Gisele snigger, snigger!