No more bottles, teats and powdered milk. In Venezuela alone breastfeedingshould be tolerated. This is the order that Venezuelan mothers will soon have to respect. Why such a measure? This obligation to breastfeed is officially justified by the concern to “protect filial love”. “Every infant has the right to breastfeed. The most important is love, the connection between mother and child, which is sometimes lost because they do not give them the heat transmitted by breastfeeding”, insists the vice-president of the family committee of the National Assembly, Odalis Monzon, on national television VTV.
Unofficially, there are economic reasons for compelling mothers to feed their babies naturally. Powdered infant milk is too expensive for the state, which hopes with this new jurisdiction to drastically limit imports.
Breast milk banks
Concretely, if this bill passes the parliamentary stage, infants under 6 under may not be fed with a drink other than breast milk. An exemption will be possible only under medical prescription, provided that the mother proves that she is not able to breastfeed.
Health establishments and doctors who risk breaking this law may be banned from practicing for four months and will be fined up to $ 50,000. The bottle is expensive.
Advertising for powdered milk or baby bottles will also be prohibited. To help Venezuelan women breastfeed, “breast milk banks” could be created. At their workplace, women should be able to find a place to quietly breastfeed their child since the bill also provides for companies to fit out their premises to facilitate this maternal obligation.
With this measure described as an attack on women’s rights by feminists, the government hopes to increase the breastfeeding rate in its country: from 27% today to 70% within 4 years.
