Breastfeeding: A Lifeline for Mothers and Children in Climate Change Era

ISLAMABAD:Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Climate Change and Environmental Coordinator said that breastfeeding is a vital practice with profound health benefits for both infants and mothers. Because, it provides infants with essential nutrients, boosts their immune systems, and fosters an emotional bond between mother and child.

“Breastfeeding supports healthy development, strengthens the mother-infant bond and yields positive economic and environmental impacts. However, promoting and supporting breastfeeding through education, policy and community support can lead to healthier individuals and a more sustainable future,” Ms Alam said while addressing as keynote speaker at a seminar ‘National Advocacy & Sensitisation with Parliamentarians on the World Breastfeeding Awareness Week’ held here on Wednesday.

The event was organized by ‘Save the Children’ in collaboration with the Climate Change and Environmental Coordination Ministry, WHO, Unicef, and the World Food Programme.

Highlighting climate change impacts on mothers’ access to healthy nutrition, PM’s Climate aide told the participants that Pakistan is on the frontline of climate change impacts, facing extreme weather events, water scarcity, and shifts in agricultural productivity.

These challenges have a direct impact on food security and, by extension, on maternal and child nutrition, she added.

The PM’s Climate Aide, however, emphasized upon the need for hammering out policies and action plans to protect breastfeeding women from exacerbating fallouts of climate change, particularly floods and heatwaves.

“As climate change exacerbates poverty and food insecurity, the most vulnerable segments of our population—women and children—are at increased risk of malnutrition,” she remarked.

Romina Khurshid suggested, “To address this, we must integrate climate resilience into our national nutrition programmes and policies.”

“This means promoting sustainable agricultural practices, ensuring that our food systems are resilient to climate shocks, and prioritizing nutrition in our climate adaptation strategies. By doing so, we can protect our children from the dual threats of malnutrition and climate change,” she elaborated.

The PM’s aide Romina Khurshid Alam emphasised that breastfeeding lies at the heart of our nation’s future—empowering maternal, child, and adolescent nutrition in Pakistan.

She remarked, “Achieving adequate and health-boosting nutrition is not just a health challenge for mother and child during breastfeeding age, it is also a cornerstone for the development of our society, our economy, and our resilience to the growing challenges posed by climate change.”

Romina Khurshid also highlighted that breastfeeding in Pakistan has long been recognised as a crucial practice for ensuring the health and survival of our children. Yet, despite these benefits, the practice of exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life was not as widespread as it should be for different reasons,” she observed.

Romina Khurshid Alam said thee mother-child health policymakers, practitioners and children’s rights activists should enhance their efforts to protect and promote this practice as healthy children are at the heart of healthy society.

“This requires a collective effort from all sectors—healthcare professionals, community leaders, policymakers, and media—to create environments where mothers feel empowered to breastfeed,” Ms Alam underlined.

Promoting breastfeeding is not possible without dispelling myths, providing accurate information, and supporting mothers, especially in rural and underserved areas, where access to healthcare and information may be limited, PM’s coordinator Romina Khurshid Alam cautioned.

She said further that as we work towards empowering women and ensuring gender equality, it is vital to implement family-friendly policies that support working mothers.

The PM’s Coordinator suggested thst Pakistan, where women play an essential role in both the economy and the home, policies such as paid maternity leave, flexible work hours, and access to quality childcare are crucial. These policies not only benefit mothers and their children but also contribute to a more productive and resilient workforce, she added.

Highlighting the government’s efforts, Romina Khurshid said that the government has taken various steps towards this by enhancing maternity leave policies and encouraging workplaces to adopt more family-friendly practices.

However, “the government is also pushing for broader implementation, particularly in the private sector, and ensure that these policies are accessible to women in all parts of the country”, she highlighted.

Secretary of the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus Dr. Shahida Rehmani said while addressing the event that one of the most pressing challenges we face in protecting breastfeeding is the aggressive marketing of breast milk substitutes.

In Pakistan, this issue is particularly acute, with widespread marketing that often targets vulnerable mothers, leading them to believe that formula milk is a better option, she pointed out.

The International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes is a global standard designed to curb these practices, and Pakistan has committed to upholding it.

She said that protecting breastfeeding is not just a matter of health; it is a matter of national responsibility.

“Our commitment to empowering maternal, child, and adolescent nutrition in Pakistan must be rooted in our cultural values, supported by robust policies, and reinforced by our efforts to combat climate change,” Dr Shahida Rehmani suggested.

Chief of Nutrition, UNICEF, Anthony Germa urged the parliamentarians to join forces to address the critical issue of malnutrition among infants and lactating mothers.

“Breastfeeding is essential for children’s survival and is the first vaccine for every child to fight diseases.  Despite all these benefits only half of the child population failed to get breastfeeding within six months of their birth in Pakistan.

Breastfeeding is more than challenging in Pakistan as it is bearing three per cent of its child mortality due to malnutrition,” he added.

Germa underlined that human development discourse needed to discuss breastfeeding as the basic need of a child.

Vice Chancellor of Health Services Academy (HSA), Dr Shahzad Ali Khan said that  Pakistan’s nutrition indicators are declining and it’s worst in well-off households due to excessive junk food consumption.

“The mother’s failing to provide micronutrients during the baby’s development age can lead to complications at birth time and diseases in the adulthood of the child. Mother health is very important and early childhood development is critical whereas lack of breastfeeding in early times can lead to a rise in neonatal diseases that will lead 42,000 infants to death in the first month of their birth,” he said.

He warned that breastfeeding substitute causes obesity among children, whereas around 80% of women are guided by doctors or health workers to feed milk substitutes to their babies which needs to be addressed and curtailed through awareness.

The areas having more cows have less breastfeeding and with those having least cows have more breastfeeding ratio, he added.

“Breastfeeding is the child’s right and the parliamentarians must ensure it through legislation,” Dr Khan said.

MNA, Asia Naz Tanoli said the mother’s health and family support is critical to achieve good health for the baby whereas the education of families is also important to focus on the role of husband and family during the period of motherhood.