According to the US Preventative Services Task Force, strict rules in hospitals surrounding feeding a newborn only breastmilk up to the age of six months – even though his or her mother may be struggling to produce milk, particularly during the first few days post-birth – could, in fact, harm the baby’s health.
This comes after the health body explored the current UNICEF and World Health Organization breastfeeding guidelines (they state that a mother should exclusively breastfeed a baby until the age of six months) being used in a number of hospitals in the U.S. and the UK.
What this health body is now arguing is that by hospitals not giving babies formula in circumstances when a woman can’t produce enough milk for their baby, or their baby won’t take to their breast to feed, could put the child at risk of dehydration and jaundice.
As reported by New Scientist, UNICEF’s guidelines are advised worldwide, but as experts suggest, some hospitals, in their mission to be UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative-accredited (“which involves only giving newborns formula if it’s medically necessary”), are opting to not store formula on neo-natal wards at all.
“The Baby Friendly Initiative has gone hand in hand with less support for formula or mixed-feeding parents,” Sasha Howard, a paediatrician at Barts Health Trust in London, tells New Scientist.
“It’s no longer available in some hospitals. I hear of dads being sent out to buy some at 3 am because the baby wasn’t feeding and there simply was no formula.”
Associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, Valerie Flaherman agrees, stating that if hospitals don’t review these policies, they could “risk causing unnecessary harm”.
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