Responding to some residents’ concerns about mothers currently being unable to breastfeed their newborns or to see them for over 24 hours after giving birth at the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, the Health Bureau (SSM) said in a statement yesterday that in order to effectively deal with the recent COVID-19 wave, the hospital has been forced to adjust its medical resources and increase the number of beds to treat COVID-19 patients. Consequently, the statement said, the hospital has temporarily merged its postpartum and gynaecological wards, as both had fewer inpatients, resulting in mothers currently being unable to breastfeed their newborns as usual.
On the other hand, the bureau reaffirmed in the statement that promoting breastfeeding and creating a breastfeeding-friendly environment continue to be the government’s long-standing policy objectives.
In order to minimise the temporary measure’s impact on postpartum mothers breastfeeding their newborns, the public hospital “will optimise in a timely manner” the breastfeeding arrangement in line with the actual situation, the statement said.
According to the statement, in response to the emergency needs of the treatment of severe [COVID-19] cases while taking necessary measures to protect the safety and health of mothers and newborns alike, the public hospital has temporarily not been able to arrange for postpartum mothers to breastfeed their newborns.
However, the statement added, in cases where postpartum mothers could not breastfeed their newborns directly earlier this month, the hospital has arranged for those who intend to breastfeed their newborns to express their breastmilk which is then transferred to nursing staff for collection and storage, in accordance with the standard operating procedures. The mothers’ expressed breastmilk is then passed on to specialist nurses to feed the newborns.
Image courtesy of WABA World Breastfeeding Week 2022
