Aishwarya Iyer
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Written By: Aishwarya Iyer | Updated : July 30, 2018 10:42 AM IST
Shouldn't the hospitals take the consent from mothers or parents before feeding an infant with formula milk, at least when the baby is a few days old? Are our hospitals trying to promote formula milk over breast milk or do they not care about the well-being of the newborn? Isn't this sheer negligence?
All of these are questions being raised recently. A movement was stirred by a 31-year-old Mumbai resident through a petition on Change.org, Jincy Varghese whose infant was fed formula milk when he was in the NICU. "When my baby was born, he was kept in the NICU for observing his sugar levels. During the time he spent in the NICU, he was fed formula milk. I was not informed of this and my consent was not taken by the hospital," she wrote in her petition.
This has become a problem in many hospitals. "I later realized that what happened to me is a very rampant practice across the country. Especially when a mother is recovering after a C-section, or when a baby is in the NICU, many hospitals just go ahead and feed the baby formula milk, without informing the mother," a furious Varghese added.
"I want the government to tell all the hospitals to get prior consent of the mother before feeding a newborn formula milk," Varghese said in her petition.
Interestingly, this debate has surfaced at a time when there are several reports claiming that Britain has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world and how different parts of the world haven't still understood its importance fully. Recently, a Malayalam magazine was slammed for showcasing a woman breastfeeding her child on the cover page. All of these seem to hint at one thing for sure- our lack of understanding about the importance of breast milk.
WHO and UNICEF recommend that breastfeeding should commence within one hour of the child's birth, it should be administered during the first six months of the child's life and should ideally continue till the age of two to ensure the healthy growth and development of the child apart from reducing the rate of child mortality. This is so because there isn't any alternative to breast milk or colostrum, the yellow pre-milk that promotes good health for your child.
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