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Kerala is now 'baby-friendly'

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI Aug. 1 . On the first day of the World Breastfeeding Week today, the Governor, Sikander Bakht, declared Kerala as a `baby-friendly State'.

The declaration, made at a ceremony hosted by the Baby Friendly Hospitals Initiative State Task Force, Directorate of Health Services and the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, follows the State's achievement in getting the huge majority of maternity hospitals certified as `baby-friendly'.

The Governor, speaking after making the declaration, said mother's milk should be the `fundamental and inalienable right' of a baby. The aggressive advertisements by baby food companies had wooed young mothers from breastfeeding, he pointed out and noted that such advertisements were now prohibited. However, he regretted that many working mothers were not able to breastfeed their babies properly as maternity leave was very short in most private sector companies.

The Health Minister, P. Sankaran, praised the efforts of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics in making the State's hospitals baby-friendly. The State Women's Commission chairwoman, M. Kamalam, said anganwadi workers and other grassroots level women activists could be motivated to spread the message of breastmilk.

Erma Menoncourt, deputy programmes director, UNICEF India, Elsie Philip, State coordinator, Baby Friendly Hospitals Initiative, Indusekhar Rao, national vice-president, Indian Academy of Paediatrics, and Kurian Thomas, IAP State coordinator, were among those who spoke at the declaration ceremony.

Kerala is the first State in India to get the `baby-friendly State' status--which means that more than 80 per cent of the maternity hospitals here `protect, promote and support breastfeeding', discourage use of baby foods and support a breastmilk-friendly atmosphere. Kerala is said to be the only State in the world to go baby-friendly.

The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative is a global drive, sponsored by the World Health Organisation and the UNICEF, to promote exclusive breastfeeding. The drive became necessary as, generations of young mothers, influenced by high-velocity advertising blitz of multinational baby food makers, abandoned breastfeeding.

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