Opposes promoting “bottle- feeding” culture
Mumbai: The Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI), a three-decade-old Non-Profit watchdog organisation criticised union Health Minster Dr Harsh Vardhan and Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan for promoting separation of Covid positive mother from her newborn baby while breastfeeding. Dr Arun Gupta, Central Co-ordinator of BPNI urged the minister and Bachchan to withdraw their tweet and requested union health minister to issue clear instructions to the health facilities to avoid bottle-feeding, and make use of a cup for feeding expressed milk or infant formula on doctor’s prescription.
Dr Gupta, who is also Regional coordinator (South Asia) of The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), said, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, a woman with Covid should be supported to breastfeed her baby safely, hold her skin to skin and share room with her baby. Covid positive mothers should follow personal respiratory hygiene, wash hands before and after touching the baby and regularly clean/disinfect frequently touched surfaces.
“On the contrary, the recent Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines suggested ‘temporary separation’ of the mother and baby. It has confused the health care workers and mothers and has led to the practice of separating the babies from mothers who are suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 virus-positive,” said Dr Gupta.
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on March 15 tweeted a video, which shows two nurses in PPE were feeding a baby through the bottle because the baby was separated from his for SARS-CoV-2 virus-positive mother. There was no way to know what was in the bottle; infant formula or expressed breast-milk.
Dr Gupta, as coordinator of BPNI, wrote a letter to Dr Harsh Vardhan on April 17, drawing his attention towards the issue and requested to withdraw his tweet showing bottle -feeding baby. The NGO also urged ICMR to tweak or modify its guidance according to international standards that in no way undermines breastfeeding. The BPNI works to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.
In response, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare provided BPNI with a set of guidelines as their stance on the issue of separation of mother and baby. Dr Gupta said, “These guidelines essentially conveyed that ideally the mother and newborn should not be separated, should continue skin to skin contact and initiate breastfeeding within first 60 minutes after the birth with precautionary measures of respiratory hygiene. Based on the clinical condition of mother and newborn, the decision might be taken on a case to case basis.”
Dr Gupta further said that Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood star on April 26, tweeted an audiovisual message of humanity for the nation, which was conceptualised and produced by Saathiya Movie fame Shaad Ali under his production house Hectic Media Pvt Ltd. The message goes on to use the video of two nurses in PPE feeding a baby with the bottle, the mother was nowhere seen.
“BPNI believes such communication can convey the wrong message to people, and this practice of separation could be more harmful than Covid as the baby misses out potential protection of breastfeeding,” said Dr Gupta.
“Though the message binds the nation towards compassion for fellow beings, its ending visual promotes and normalises separation of newborns from covid positive mothers. This carries a major communication disadvantage,” he added.
BPNI urges Amitabh Bachchan and Shaad Ali to replace the bottle- feeding visual from the humanity video with a breastfeeding visual or Nurses, doctors assisting mothers to breastfeed in covid times. This change would be hugely beneficial to health systems and society.
