At present 18 District Hospitals in the state have functional Divya Mother Milk Banks and all banks have Anchal Breastfeeding Clinics where assistance is being provided to women who face difficulty in breastfeeding their newborns.
In its effort to protect newborns from malnutrition and hence curb the Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) in the state, Rajasthan health department has come up with a provision that from September 1, women delivering babies in 18 government district hospitals having mother milk bank will be discharged only if they are in a condition to breastfeed their baby.
At present 18 District Hospitals in the state have functional Divya Mother Milk Banks and all banks have Anchal Breastfeeding Clinics where assistance is being provided to women who face difficulty in breastfeeding their newborns.
“ Motive is to ensure that the mother should leave the hospital only if she is capable to breastfeed. By the end of this financial year all 25 district hospitals with high delivery load will get breastfeeding clinic services set up,” Devendra Agrawal, consultant to the state government told DNA. As per the order issued by the health department for these hospitals, new mothers will be discharged only after the consulting doctor’s stamp on the discharge form that they are capable of breastfeeding and it will be certified by the milk bank counsellor at the hospital. “As the exclusive breastfeeding for six months is a well proven crucial component related to malnutrition and mortality of newborns, on the discharge ticket commitment would be taken from mother that she would exclusively breastfeed the baby for six months,” said Agrawal. “Despite of this provision and inability to breastfeed, if any woman insists on getting discharged, she will be discharged after being categorised as LAMA (leave against medical advice) and DOR (discharge of request) patient,” he added.
Currently Rajasthan has Asia’s largest network of 18 Mother Milk Banks. These human milk banks are at 17 districts hospitals including Beawar (Ajmer), Alwar, Banswara, Baran, Barmer, Bhilwara, Bharatpur, Bundi, Chittorgarh, Churu, Dholpur, Jalore and Karauli.
What Data Says
As per health department data, 3,89,565 deliveries took place at 18 government district hospitals and out of these 73,138 mothers makes for 25.18 per cent of the total deliveries required help to feed their babies from the breastfeeding clinic at the respective milk bank.
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