Future of Goa and rest of the nation fully depends on healthy, normal kids. In absence of breastfeeding mothers’ bill of rights, like in advanced countries, Goa is still not a mother friendly, breastfeeding promoting state.

Goa denies its babies human colostrum – world’s most complex nourishing, probiotic and antibiotic protective rich fluid. It is locally known as “chik” (sticky fluid). Most of the doctors fail to tell the pregnant women in Goa that during late stage of pregnancy itself this nourishing fluid is produced and it needs to be administered to the babies within six hours of delivery.

Infant mortality and disease load in children in Goa would come down drastically if there is a mass movement to administer colostrum to newly born babies within six hours. But with no statutory mechanism in place to monitor hospital deliveries and infant nutrition, private maternity homes are allegedly encouraging bottle feeding with synthetic or powdered milk.

Besides, there is total ignorance among marriageable section about importance of colostrum and mother’s milk. Goa is witnessing a generation which has missed minimum six months of mandatory breastfeeding.

Teachers in higher educational institutions are increasingly coming across a weak, sickly generation easily susceptible to simple illnesses despite universal vaccination. After excluding about 50 per cent of normal individuals, the rest 50 per cent – mostly teens and young adults – in Goa face two issues – stunting and obesity.

The present generation in age group 15-30 shows large population of stunted individuals, shorter than normal height, underweight and on other side another section about 10 percent of individuals who are seriously and severely obese ones.

Both the issues point to lack of breastfeeding to lay down a good metabolic and hormonal foundation. We have kept careful notes of growth of our child from the date of his delivery.

As soon as my wife recovered from the effect of anesthesia, the nurse suggested bottle feeding the just-four-hours-old baby. But well read on the breastfeeding issue, my wife refused bottle feeding and insisted on breast feeding. She first fed colostrum to the hungry baby. Later she had many uneasy sleepless nights as the baby used to wake up demanding feed at odd hours. It was exhausting. We discovered that this could be one reason compelling post globalized modern mothers to decline or curtail breastfeeding despite its benefits to them, for example, prevention of breast cancers.

For the unprepared mothers, sleep deprivation indeed creates problems after delivery of the first child. My wife still insisted and continued breastfeeding. After three years of breastfeeding she discovered that the child gave it up on his own accord. Now after weaning him, seven years down the lane, the results are seen in his robust physical growth and vigor.

For his age a little over ten years, my son has surprisingly exceeded the average height and weight. It should have been 138 cm and 32 kilograms for Indian kids. But he has reached 152 cm and 45 kilograms. He is taller and heavier than some of my adult students. The reason is simple. It was breastfeeding extended beyond six months in addition to normal recommended diet.

Tribal communities all over the world had understood this simple principle of nutrition thousands of years ago. But the onslaught of multinational infant feed formulation companies created a culture of bottle feeding. It has not been acknowledged that the causes behind present stunted generation lie in lack of breastfeeding and infant malnutrition.

Here is the proof from a paper published in October 2015 by two doctors in Goa Medical College, Vanita and Savita Pinto Silva titled – “Nutritional Status of Anganwadi Children under the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme in a Rural Area in Goa” (Int. J. Sc. Study, Vol. 3:7).

They studied 782 children aged 6 to 72 months, boys and girls almost equal, registered in 16 anganwadis. Among these 64 per cent population comprised of children aged 6-36 months, and 36 per cent were between the ages of 37 and 72 months. They found overall 33 per cent children underweight, 24 per cent showing wasting, and 32 per cent stunted.

The prevalence of mild to moderate underweight children was 24 percent, mild to moderate wasting 14 percent, and mild to moderate stunting 23 percent. About 75-80 children were found underweight, wasted and stunted.

This picture was worse a decade ago. There are also concerns about low birth weight of children born in Goa raising serious concerns about failure of nutritional programs.

These are more focused on promotion of iodized salt spiked with sodium and potassium iodides and iodates promoted aggressively by cash rich, big brands. National Family Health Survey has also come out recently with shocking results about the state of Goa’s mothers and children. Add lack of culture of breastfeeding to other issues like deficiency of vitamin A, folic acid and iron and one can see the forthcoming nutritional catastrophe.

More people are now dying young because as babies they were probably denied their mother’s milk. All higher education institutions need to make health and nutrition cards compulsory for all students.

The new Goa assembly, 2017 should pass Breastfeeding Mothers Bill of Rights.

(Source: navhindtimes.in)