With World Breastfeeding Week starting today, the Health Promotion Administration yesterday said a survey it conducted showed the nation’s breastfeeding rate in the first six months of a baby’s life reached 45.5 percent, adding that there is still room for improvement in creating a breastfeeding-friendly environment.
According to the agency’s statistics collected last year, Taiwan’s breastfeeding rate surpassed the world average rate of 38 percent and is getting closer to the WHO’s global target of increasing the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months up to at least 50 percent by 2025.
The survey showed that 65.3 percent of breastfeeding mothers are satisfied with the general breastfeeding environment and 78.1 percent consider their workplace supportive of breastfeeding or pumping.
Administration Director Wang Ying-wei (王英偉) said the survey also showed that 57.1 percent of mothers stopped breastfeeding because they did not have enough breast milk, while 21.9 percent said they had difficulty breastfeeding or pumping at their workplace.
The survey showed that some people are not satisfied with the breastfeeding environment, so there is still room for improvement, the agency said.
Breastfeeding is a natural and low-cost method of feeding infants and is good for their health, it said, adding that the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action also said that breast milk is a nutritious and safer food for infants, adding that breastfeeding is friendlier to the ecosystem than formula feeding.
It recommended exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and introducing complementary foods with breastfeeding until the baby is two years old or older.
Administration official Chen Miao-hsin (陳妙心) said some studies have found that benefits of breastfeeding for infants include a reduced risk of developing ear infections, digestive tract and respiratory diseases, as well as diabetes or allergies.
The administration said women should give birth at hospitals that have a “baby-friendly hospital” certification — of which there are 182 in the nation — so that they are allowed to have direct skin contact with their newborn within 30 minutes of giving birth and to stay in the same room as their baby for at least 24 hours, adding that healthcare practitioners can also instruct new mothers how to breastfeed.
Wang said collective participation is needed to raise a baby, adding that in addition to the help of family members, society should support a breastfeeding and baby-friendly environment.
Agencies provide various resources to help new parents, Wang said, adding that a toll-free hotline (0800-870-870) and a Web site (http://mammy.hpa.gov.tw) is available for pregnant women to ask questions or find information about pregnancy.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods