Breastfeeding remains the ideal source of nutrition for the healthy growth and development of babies. The Department of Health says breastfeeding offers many benefits for both infants and mothers. It provides all the energy and essential nutrients a baby needs from birth up to six months of age.
Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Dr. Jose “Brix” S. Pujalte Jr. issued specific directives to intensify and accelerate existing initiatives instead of overhauling them.
Pujalte’s overarching marching order is “Pasyente Muna” (Patient First), prioritizing health programs such as breastfeeding, nutrition, and maternal care.
The primary action points guiding the agency under his administration include fully sustaining the National Nutrition Council (NNC) agenda and ensuring that breastfeeding and essential infant care remain integrated into the critical First 1,000 Days framework.
These initiatives are geared toward the implementation of Universal Health Care (UHC) by expanding foundational public health programs—including maternal and child healthcare and PhilHealth benefits—so that healthcare services are directly felt at the grassroots level.
UHC is a healthcare model and policy framework that ensures all citizens have access to the full spectrum of quality health services they need, when and where they need them, without suffering financial hardship.
In the Philippines, UHC was institutionalized through Republic Act No. 11223, or the Universal Health Care Act, which automatically enrolls every Filipino citizen in the National Health Insurance Program (PhilHealth).
The DOH will also implement a nationwide leadership realignment to ensure that the distribution of primary health commodities, nutrition programs, and clinical services faces no operational delays during the management transition.
The health department will continue implementing its Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) program, focusing on early initiation through the “Unang Yakap” protocol, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and strict enforcement of the Milk Code and the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act (Republic Act No. 10028). Regional offices will also continue certifying and expanding Mother-Baby Friendly workplaces and health facilities.
As part of early initiation, the DOH promotes skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding within the first hour of life.
In addition to advocating exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, the department promotes safe complementary feeding while continuing breastfeeding for up to two years and beyond.
The DOH will also strengthen workplace compliance by expanding the certification of Mother-Baby Friendly public and private workplaces, which are required to provide lactation stations and 40-minute paid lactation breaks.
The department will work with local task forces to monitor compliance and prevent the unauthorized marketing of breast milk substitutes.
Likewise, the DOH, in collaboration with the National Nutrition Council (NNC) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), tracks local Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) and nutrition initiatives through integrated digital platforms, localized operational trackers, and multi-sectoral evaluation protocols.
Among these is the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project Information System (PMNP-IS), a unified open-source database platform co-developed by the DOH and the DSWD, with support from the World Bank and UNICEF. The system tracks and coordinates healthcare and social protection interventions for pregnant women, postpartum mothers, and children under two years old across hundreds of priority local government units (LGUs).
The PMNP-IS is designed to replace fragmented paper-based records with integrated, real-time data.
It bridges two critical institutional functions: tracking health indicators such as child undernutrition, wasting, and stunting, and integrating social indicators, including household poverty, food security, hunger levels, and access to clean water.
