The public health topic I chose to blog about is breastfeeding. This has been a topic of conversation between my colleagues and I. She informed me about a plan the Mayor of NY would like to put into affect for many hospitals in September.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg would like to have the baby formula in many participating hospitals to lock up their formula and allow nurses to distribute the formula only upon a mother's or doctor's request. The mother will need to be well informed of why experts believe that breast milk is best for their babies. They will be treating the formula as any other drug, they must be locked up and the staff must sign it out in order to distribute it.
I believe breast feeding is the way to go, but I am not quite sure how the public will respond to such a demand. I have five children, four of which I breast fed. I bonded with my first child just as I did my other four children. I chose to breast feed because it was easier, and it seemed to be the healthier way to go. I believe that many mothers may be scared with their first child or maybe they do not have adequate information regarding breastfeeding. Many places in the world may not have a choice of whether to breast or bottle feed their infants.
The source I retrieved the information about NY is as follows. http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/02/health/time-bloomberg-breast-feeding/index.html
ReplyDeleteTeresa,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great topic. Breastfeeding indeed is an infant’s best choice of nutrition plus it's free! When my children were younger I insisted on nothing other than mommy's milk. I know that it helps the child as well as me. Unfortunately I wasn't able to produce ample amount of milk for my young so we needed to supplement with formula. As you can only imagine I was very sad that I wasn't able to give them just mommy's milk. I tried several "tricks" but none seemed to work for me. I like what your mayor’s stance is on this subject and I feel that initiative needs to spread throughout the United States.
Thank you Melanie for your response. I too was a mom who felt it a great honor to be able to nurse my children. It does create a great bond with your children. I do feel so bad for the mothers that desire to nurse their children and for some reason they cannot.
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