6.3 Nutrition: Of women in the preconception period, during pregnancy and the breastfeeding period

Posted Mon, 2011-11-21 01:01

Secretariat note

At the request of a Member State, a report has been prepared to illustrate the impact on maternal health of nutrition issues experienced in the preconception period, and during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and the consequences for infant health. The Board is invited to consider the suggested responses, and the report as a whole, in conjunction with its consideration of the comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition.

Watchers' notes of EB discussion

See report under item 6.03, Infant Nutrition

PHM Comment

The document EB 130/11 gives an adequate background of the problem, fairly comprehensive. Together with the document EB 130/10, which contains the Draft Comprehensive Implementation Plan on Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition, interventions to improve nutrition clearly include action in sectors other than health, such as social and economic interventions, agriculture, environment, maternity protection laws, amongst others. 
The Draft Implementation Plan, under its Actions section, states that Member States should strengthen their health systems, promote universal coverage and principles of primary health care (para 37) in order to include all required effective health interventions with an impact on nutrition in national nutrition plans. This is appreciated.

However, the wider set of determinants which shape nutrition and that are constantly challenging the implementation of many of the proposed interventions, such as the International Code on Breast Milk Substitutes, is not approached in this document. From a PHM perspective, definite issues such as food trade need to be explicitly addressed, because trade agreements are at the origin of food insecurity.