KABAYAN Partylist Representative Ron Salo urges government to prioritize maternal health as a crucial component in nation-building. An advocate of health rights, Salo expressed his concern after receiving reports that four out of ten women, especially those from the country’s workforce are considered under and malnourished.

“Maternal health is crucial to any developing country’s public health agenda where the well-being of women of reproductive age from conception to childbirth up to child rearing is regarded as a crucial building block of any nation. A thriving workforce and a healthy population–hindi ba’t sa nanay lahat nagsisimula yan?”

Healthy lactating women, health babies. The thing is, work pressures and lack or even absence of economic access to nutritional sources are just some of the reasons why women of reproductive age experience difficulties in producing their own milk.

Maternal milk, a key component in the development of children ages from zero to two years, relies on the health conditions of mothers. Several studies had shown that most working moms fail to breast feed their babies due to the inability to produce milk.

Homeopathic solutions have been suggested by the Department of Health as breastfeeding remains at the top of priorities of the department. DOH administrative Order no. 2005-0023 regards breastfeeding as top priorities of the country’s health agency.

While the Department of Health (DOH) had suggested the establishment of milk banks all over the country, the reality is, there are simply no milk banks existing in major cities, worse so in far-flung towns in the archipelago.