The UAE has added a clause to its Child Rights Law, requiring mothers to breastfeed for at least the first two years of their child’s life.
The Federal National Council’s session passed the Child Rights Law last month, and the breastfeeding clause was added once it was put up for review, it has been reported.
The clause requires all able Emirati women to breastfeed their children for at least two years as part of their duty as mothers, the Council said.
Sultan Al Sammahi, of Fujairah, a member of the committee, said in comments published by Abu Dhabi daily The National that it was the right of all children to be breast fed.
But it reported that the Minister of Social Affairs, Mariam Al Roumi, raised concerns over husbands suing their wives for not complying with the new law.
The World Health Organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding until six months, followed by breastfeeding and other food until the child is two years old.
The Dubai-based group Out of the Blues, which supports mothers with postnatal illness, has reportedly warned that the law could criminalise women when they were at their most vulnerable.
“As many of the new mothers we encounter are already under significant pressure, we are concerned that enacting a law that leaves mothers facing potential punishment could be a step too far,” the group said in an open letter.
Members of the UAE’s federal national council, which passed the law, suggested wet nurses should be provided for children whose mothers had died or could not feed them.
The law requires a public information campaign and says all government offices must provide a nursery so working mothers can breastfeed, an existing regulation that has never been enforced.
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