Breast-feeding is best, so ban bottles, Venezuelan lawmaker proposes

[Justina For Justice]

14. Papua New Guinea Had Similar Law in the 1970's.

In order to encourage new mothers to breast-fed, the traditional method for thousands of years in Papua New Guinea, the government required that, if mothers were unable to breast-feed, they had to obtain a doctor's prescription to buy baby bottles. I believe the law was passed while the country was still an Australian colony.

The country's laws also mandated that women be allowed time to breast feed their babies while they were on the job, something that many other other countries still don't provide their nursing mothers.

The country became independent in 1975, but the same law may still be in effect today.

I lived there for in the late seventies and early eighties, and I considered the law a healthy move to protect infants from being fed coke, soft drinks or the sometimes dangerous baby milk substitutes that were frequently dumped in Third World countries.

I expect the Venezuelans have similar provisions in their proposed new law to allow for the purchase of baby bottles by mothers who are unable to breast feed.