When protection exists on paper but not in practice

Across Southeast Asia, breastfeeding protection is often strong on paper but weak in lived experience.

Maternity protection laws exist but are unevenly enforced. The informal economy, where most women in the region work, remains largely outside formal protection frameworks. Return-to-work policies force impossible choices between income and infant feeding. Health systems continue to struggle with conflicts of interest that undermine trust, standards of care and professional autonomy. Community support is expected to compensate for systemic shortfalls it was never designed to address.

The challenge is in understanding why systems continue to reproduce the barriers despite decades of policy commitments.

Day 3 brings a systems lens to practical reform: addressing commercial influence in clinical settings, bridging the formal-informal divide, and emerging models that move beyond compliance towards meaningful protection.

Dr Julie P Smith