VELLORE: The Government Vellore Medical College (GVMC) while inaugurating events to commemorate World Breastfeeding Week, will open on Wednesday, a-first-of-its-kind ‘breastfeeding room’ for the staff and nurses of the hospital to breastfeed their babies during work. With this, GVMC continues its grand tradition of making mothers aware of the importance of breastfeeding and of facilitating mothers breastfeed their babies. GVMC was the only college in Tamil Nadu to win an award from Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI) for organizing breastfeeding-related events last year.
Dr Therani Rajan, head of the Department of Paediatrics, told Express that the breastfeeding room at the hospital will be inaugurated by the district collector, Nanthagopal. The room designated for the purpose will be adjacent to the paediatric ward and will have reclining chairs to enable staffers to feed the baby in comfort, he added.
Therani Rajan added that while the World Breast Feeding week with the theme ‘Breast Feeding and Work: Lets Make it Work’ was being observed in the first week of August, “We want to focus on working mothers and to provide facilities for them to breastfeed their babies without work-related interruptions. This separate room will certainly meet this requirement,” he added.
Vellore city mayor, P Karthiyayini, while inaugurating the week-long celebrations, stressed the role that doctors must play in making mothers aware of the importance of breastfeeding babies.
On the first day of the event, a medical-quiz for medical students on breastfeeding was conducted by Dr Diana and her team. This was followed by distribution of pamphlets outlining the importance of breastfeeding to patients at the neo-natal ward and the public.
On Tuesday, cultural events like ‘villuppattu’, ‘skits’ and other competitio-ns were held by medical and nursing students to spread awareness of the importance of breastfeeding. A ‘patti mandram’ was also organized on ‘Whether Family or Society helps Working Women Breastfeed their Babies.’
On Wednesday an interactive session with nursing mothers will be held and mothers of around 38 pre-term and low birth-weight babies who were treated at the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit will share their experiences of how breastfeeding helped their babies gain weight and keep them healthy.
Chandra Chellaiah, former director of Institute of Social Paediatrics, Stanley Medical College will be the chief guest at the valedictory function that has been scheduled for Friday. R N Manjula, district labour judge will preside on the occasion.