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aaron motsoaledi, breastfeeding, daily sun, formula feeding, sowetan, the citizen, the new age, the star, the timesStaying ‘abreast’ of news coverage
JournAIDS
25 August 2011
News reports on the consultative meeting on breastfeeding have dominated the news media this week.
The meeting took place on 22 and 23 August. Key players met to discuss how best to promote breastfeeding and reach an agreement on the best infant feeding strategy going forward.
Breastfeeding in the context of South Africa’s high HIV prevalence was also a hot topic.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi reiterated that breastfeeding was safe for HIV-positive mothers as long as ART was involved, “…both mother and infant undergo antiretroviral therapy throughout the breastfeeding period.”
Various news reports quoted Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi as lamenting the lack of breastfeeding going on among South African mothers.
In his statement the Minister listed a number of reasons why the popularity of breastfeeding had waned but the reason highlighted by most reports was the aggressive promotion of formula feeding.
Motsoaledi had been quoted as saying that the aggressive promotion of formula feeding was a similar to “propaganda” around skin lightening creams during apartheid.
Most notably reports on Aaron Motsoaledi’s ‘breast is best’ stance came to a head when the Minister announced that the government would stop providing free baby formula through its clinics and hospitals.
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