Jackson Health System in South Florida, the largest public hospital in the US, will stop giving out formula samples to new mothers. Jackson decided to do without the commercially sponsored formula bags given to discharged mothers “because it undermines our message and what we’re trying to accomplish,” said Marta Galarza, the University of Miami neonatologist who has spearheaded the designation effort. “This is an important way of telling new mothers, ‘You can do it.’ ” As the medical director of the newborn intermediate care unit at Holtz Children’s Hospital at Jackson, Galarza noticed that as many as 85 percent of mothers said they wanted to breastfeed their infants, but those who actually did for any period of time was much lower. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which considers breastfeeding one of its “high priority” initiatives, recommends that infants be fed human milk exclusively for about six months, followed by continued breastfeeding with complementary foods until a year. The practice can then continue for as long as it is mutually desirable for mother and child.
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 08:04:04 +0000
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