Relevance of national breastfeeding policy (NBP) in Malaysian society

Breastfeeding, a natural way of parenting has now become a secondary choice in modern society due to increasing promotion and commercialization of the artificial substitute called formula milk.The benefits of breastfeeding are not limited just to mothers and babies but it expands to the families and society.Malaysia’s breastfeeding policy recommends exclusive breastfeeding for first six months of life and continued breastfeeding along with complementary food up to two years of age. Code of Marketing of Infant Formula Products (Code) and Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) serves as two important pillars of implementing this policy.The Code protects breastfeeding by controlling competitive promotion and advertising of commercial products which may undermine mothers’ ability and intent to breastfeed. Whereas, BFHI promotes breastfeeding by creating a conducive condition in hospitals which will empower women to make the right choice on infant feeding.Despite having all these efforts, the Third National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS III) 2006 marks only 14.5% of mothers are exclusively breastfeeding in Malaysia which warrants us to analyze the contributing factors to relatively low rate.In contrary, the usage and promotion of formula milk have taken a drastic expansion covering not only infants but mothers to be and toddlers. This paper examines the key challenges in the implementation of this policy, covering various elements from social, legislation and healthcare system in Malaysia