Telangana Health Chief Karnan: Focus on Early Breastfeeding, Fewer C-Sections
Hyderabad: Health commissioner R.V. Karnan said that the state government was committed to increasing early breastfeeding and reducing C-section deliveries. "The chance of early breastfeeding increases to 90 per cent in normal deliveries. Hence, the focus is on reducing deliveries through Caesarian operations," he said at the inaugural event of the Fourth South Asia Lambcon event.
He told the conference that a new cadre of midwives had been introduced to the state health department to connect community knowledge with medical institutions.
The two-day conference began with workshops spread across the city on Saturday, leading up to a full day conference on Sunday. Daathri Breast Milk Bank announced the setting up of the first community breast milk bank in the city. The organisation runs similar banks at the Niloufer, ESI and Gandhi Hospitals. Rockwell Industries Ltd has volunteered to donate half an acre of land needed to set up the bank.
Dr Zelalem Birhanu Taffesse, Unicef chief of field office for Telangana, emphasised the need to bring community engagement to modern institutions to increase early breastfeeding among mothers. He said that society needed to be sensitised about the importance of breastfeeding, especially for the first six months.
Dr Santosh Kumar Kraleti, member of National Medical Commission, said that about 41.8 per cent of babies in Telangana were breastfed early and around 61 per cent received breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months. In comparison, in India, 54% of babies experience early breastfeeding.
He further added that Dhaatri Breast Milk Bank runs milk banks in Niloufer, ESI, and Gandhi Hospitals and cannot provide breast milk to babies other than these hospitals. Hence, they wanted to set up the first of its community breast milk bank. Ashok Gupta, MD of Rockwell Industries volunteered to donate half an acre of land needed to set up this milk bank.
Awards were presented to four distinguished professionals in recognition of their dedicated service. Dr Sushma Mallik was honoured with the Dhaatri Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr KP Kushwaha delivered the "Dr Sundershan Reddy Patlolla Memorial Oration" where he presented his work showcasing how effective breastfeeding reduced infant mortality rate from 81 to 40 per 1000 live births in Lalithpur of Uttar Pradesh. He suggested policy makers to incorporate breastfeeding counsellors in the maternal and neonatal healthcare system.
The conference was organised by Sushena Health Foundation, in partnership with Dhaatri Mothers’ Milk Bank and supported by Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP), National Neonatology Forum (NNF), Rishihood University (RU), National Neonatology Forum - Telangana State Chapter (NNF-TS), UNICEF, and the Pediatrics Academy of Telangana.
