This week China launched a public-health campaign to encourage breast-feeding—a new tack in an often-fraught effort to quell widespread fears about the safety of the country’s powdered-milk formula.
Health agencies on Thursday began canvassing 15 Chinese cities to urge businesses and public facilities to designate private spaces for customers and employees who are breast-feeding, arguing that the lack of suitable nursing facilities was partly to blame for the low breast-feeding rates.
Swedish furniture giant Ikea is part of China’s public-health campaign to encourage breast-feeding. Ikea is among the 30 businesses that have supported the health authorities’ campaign by pledging to establish breastfeeding-appropriate facilities for customers and employees, the Wall Street Journal reports.
China’s breast-feeding rates are far lower than those in other countries. Globally, nearly 40% of infants younger than 6 months are breast-fed, while in China that figure is just 28%, according China’s Ministry of Health.
