allAfrica.com: Ghana: Breast Feeding Campaign in Dramatic Improvement
Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)
June 2, 2004
"STATISTICS FROM the Ghana Health Service indicate that the initiative embarked on to promote breastfeeding of babies, instead of using breast milk substitutes has seen a dramatic improvement nationwide since 1998 when the initiative was started.According to Miss Veronica Gomez, the National Coordinator of the Baby Friendly Initiative of the Ghana Health Service, who was speaking at a seminar organised by the Food and Drugs Board, (FDB) in conjunction with WHO and UNICEF to deliberate on the Legislative Instrument 1667 of May 2000, that seeks to promote breastfeeding in accordance with the International Code for the marketing of breast milk substitutes, 97% percent of women in the country breastfeed, however it was noticed in a survey that, women in the rural areas tended to do so for a longer period than those in urban areas, due to cultural and financial reasons...."