While we all know breast is best, we do not see this in many television programs. Many teleseryes - especially those portraying poor families - show babies and newborns drinking from bottles, and some even show the mother buying milk not suitable for the child's age. This influences the viewers to think that feeding one's child with formula milk is 'normal' and 'acceptable', and inadvertently discourages women from breastfeeding her child.

A study by the Social Science and Medicine Journal has found that Filipino mothers who have been influenced by advertisements or their doctors to use infant formula are two to four times more likely to feed their babies with those products. Despite poverty and extra strain on household income associated with formula use, 41.1 percent of the infants and young children were fed formula.

According to their findings, 59.1 percent of the mothers recalled an infant formula advertisement message, and these mothers were twice as likely to feed their babies infant formula,

Also, according to World Health Organization, if every child was breastfed within an hour of birth, given only breast milk for their first six months of life, and continued breastfeeding up to the age of two years, about 800 000 child lives would be saved every year. Globally, less than 40% of infants under six months of age are exclusively breastfed. 

Breast milk gives infants all the nutrients they need for healthy development. It is safe and contains antibodies that help protect infants from common childhood illnesses such as diarrhoea and pneumonia, the two primary causes of child mortality worldwide. Breast milk is readily available and affordable, which helps to ensure that infants get adequate nutrition.

Every infant and child has the right to good nutrition according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and definitely, every infant has the right to be breastfed. We call on all television channels to produce shows that will NOT undermine the woman's breast and her child's right. It is your moral obligation to help this nation achieve a better future by encouraging women to breastfeed. 

It's time for television networks to bring their act together and be instruments of change for a better public health.