Press Releases
Government strives to promote support for breastfeeding among different sectors of the community and the general public
The Government has all along endeavoured to promote and
support breastfeeding. Multi-pronged strategies are adopted
to promote breastfeeding which include strengthening support
to breastfeeding in medical institutions and the community,
encouraging adoption of breastfeeding friendly workplaces,
and promoting breastfeeding friendly premises. The aim is to
promote breastfeeding as the norm for babycare widely
accepted by the community. Thereby, members of the public
will then turn their support into action and create a
breastfeeding friendly environment which will boost the rate
and sustainability of breastfeeding.
The Under Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia
Chan, today (December 6) chaired the Committee on Promotion
of Breastfeeding meeting to review the progress and
effectiveness of various measures for promoting and
supporting breastfeeding and to discuss the ways to further
enhance those measures.
Professor Chan said, "The Committee has formulated a
three-year workplan. Apart from implementing various
supportive initiatives on breastfeeding through the
Department of Health (DH) and the Hospital Authority (HA),
the action plans to encourage adoption of breastfeeding
friendly workplace policy, promote breastfeeding friendly
premises, enhance publicity and education on breastfeeding
have been taken with the collaboration of the Government,
and relevant parties and sectors of the community. Through
the efforts in the past two years, it is encouraging to see
that some of these measures have achieved satisfactory
results."
The Government has adopted the following major initiatives
to support and promote breastfeeding policy with a view to
implementing the workplan drawn up by the Committee:
The Government attaches great importance in providing
appropriate support to lactating mothers when they return to
work. The Food and Health Bureau (FHB) proactively
encourages government bureaux and departments (B/Ds) to
implement the "breastfeeding friendly workplace" policy by
putting in place the breastfeeding friendly measures so as
to facilitate employees to continue breastfeeding after
returning to work. So far, more than 75 B/Ds have already
implemented the relevant policy. In May 2015, FHB issued
letters to more than 450 non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) and private enterprises to promote and encourage them
to implement measures of breastfeeding friendly workplaces.
The Government also actively promotes "breastfeeding
friendly premises" in public places in order to promote
community support towards breastfeeding and create a
friendly environment towards lactating mother. For instance,
the Government has been proactively promoting the provision
of babycare facilities in government offices and public
places. The "Advisory Guidelines on Babycare Facilities"
were developed as early as August 2008 to provide reference
to government departments and public sectors. As at June
2016, a total of 271 babycare rooms are set up in government
premises. Furthermore, the Government issued the "Practice
Note on the Provision of Babycare Rooms in Commercial
Buildings" in February 2009 to encourage and facilitate the
provision of babycare rooms in private commercial premises.
The response of property developers to this measure was
positive. For instance, babycare rooms have been provided in
shopping malls and the Urban Renewal Authority has taken
reference to the Practice Note and made the provision of
babycare rooms a mandatory tendering requirement for all
medium-to-large shopping malls. As a result of the
promotional efforts of the Government in the past years,
babycare and breastfeeding facilities have been made
available in many large department stores and hotels. To
further increase the number of breastfeeding friendly
premises, the DH had formulated the "Guide to Establishing
Breastfeeding Friendly Premises" in May 2015 for reference
by public premises interested in promoting breastfeeding
friendly environment. In June 2016, FHB issued letters to
more than 470 private enterprises and organisations to
encourage them to implement "breastfeeding friendly
premises" policy in public places owned or managed by them.
The DH has organised a number of briefings on the relevant
policy. The briefings were attended by representatives from
66 organisations and enterprises. DH’s staff were also sent
to organisations interested in implementing the relevant
policy to assist their staff to receive appropriate
training.
To further enhance the support from various sectors of the
community on breastfeeding, the FHB, the DH and the Hong
Kong Committee for the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF HK) have jointly launched a promotion campaign
entitled "Say Yes to Breastfeeding" since July 2015. The
campaign aims to encourage private organisations to
implement a breastfeeding friendly policy in workplace and
encourage public places, big and small, to introduce
breastfeeding friendly initiatives. In addition, they
collaborated in May this year to launch the promotion
campaign "Breastfeeding Friendly Mall" to encourage shopping
malls to implement breastfeeding friendly policy supporting
lactating mothers to breastfeed anywhere anytime. The
Government also encourages public transport facilities to
adopt breastfeeding friendly premises policy. Positive
responses were received. The responsible government
department has been closely liaising with the operators.
The DH and the UNICEF HK have also collaborated with the
Hong Kong Catering Industry Association to introduce and
promote "breastfeeding friendly premises" measures to the
catering industry. As at October 2016, more than 80
restaurants had implemented "breastfeeding friendly
premises" measures.
To echo the Baby Friendly Hospital (BFH) Initiative, a
worldwide programme of the World Health Organization and
UNICEF, the HA has been implementing the initiative in its
eight public hospitals with maternity wards and encouraging
them to become BFH in phases. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital
was accredited internationally as Hong Kong’s first BFH in
May 2016. The objective of the BFI Initiative is to remove
elements obstructing breastfeeding in medical institutions,
including hospitals, clinics and mother and baby centres,
and to support more mothers to sustain breastfeeding through
the provision of services and guidance. In June 2016, three
Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHC), namely, Sai Ying
Pun MCHC, Kowloon City MCHC and Yaumatei MCHC, under the
purview of DH have implemented a pilot scheme of
Baby-Friendly MCHC Accreditation. The target is to complete
the accreditation within three years.
"The breastfeeding rate in Hong Kong over the past 20 years
has been on the rise. The breastfeeding rate on hospital
discharge has increased from 24 per cent in 1992 to 89 per
cent in 2015. The result of a DH’s telephone survey
conducted last year revealed that nearly 80 per cent of the
respondents found it acceptable to have lactating mother
breastfeeding near them in public places. About 90 per cent
of the respondents agreed that a public venue should
implement breastfeeding friendly measures. Nearly 90 per
cent of the respondents agreed on implementing these
measures in workplace. The results revealed that the
community is becoming more acceptable and supportive to
breastfeeding though there is still room for improvement in
boosting the supportive atmosphere for breastfeeding anytime
and anywhere. This shows that more promotion work by the
Government is required. The Committee will continue to
monitor the implementation of the measures under the
workplan and review their effectiveness; explore initiatives
to promote breastfeeding more effectively; step up
co-operation with different organisations and sectors in the
community to actively solicit acceptance, respect and
support to lactating mothers by different sectors as well as
the general public. Then, Hong Kong will become a city
genuinely respect and support breastfeeding," said Professor
Chan.
The Committee on Promotion of Breastfeeding was set up by
the FHB in April 2014 under the chairmanship of the Under
Secretary for Food and Health. Members include
representatives from relevant healthcare professionals,
academia and representatives of the organisations that have
participated in the promotion of breastfeeding. The
Committee provides specific recommendations and supervision
on strategies and action plans to further strengthen the
promotion, protection and support for breastfeeding. Its
objectives are to enhance the sustainability of
breastfeeding and promote breastfeeding as a norm for
babycare widely accepted by the general public.
Ends/Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Issued at HKT 21:41
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