It has been an established fact that mother’s milk is the best food for a newborn baby. But owing to various factors, new mothers prefer to depend on milk substitutes instead of breastfeeding.

Qatar is preparing a draft law that will promote breastfeeding and ban promotion and advertising of milk substitutes in Qatar, Gulf Times reported, quoting a senior official at the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).

“The ‘Marketing Breast Milk Alternatives’ law will now go to the cabinet for approval,” said MoPH’s Health Protection and Non-communicable Diseases director Sheikha Dr Al Anoud bint Mohamed Al Thani.

“Though the code was signed in 1998, we need to now make it into law now. We’ve now more force to implement it,” she added.

Meanwhile, Qatar Tribune reported that an awareness campaign to encourage breastfeeding was set to start in the coming months.

“Once the law is approved, steps in coordination with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs will be taken to increase the maternity leave period. Besides, there will be no promotion of breast milk substitutes, which will be prescribed only in special circumstances,” the official was quoted as saying.

In addition, health providers will be barred from attending any event promoting breast milk substitutes.

It was also announced that all hospitals and health centres in the country will be made baby-friendly in two years time. The initiative promotes exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months after birth and then continues until when the baby is two years old.

Sheikha Dr Al Anoud added that a committee will be formed by the Ministry of Public Health which will be responsible for evaluation and accreditation of hospitals as baby-friendly hospitals.

The official was speaking on the sidelines of a five-day workshop on MoPH’s ‘Baby-friendly Hospitals Initiative,’ which began yesterday in collaboration with World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Fund.