Hospital Discriminates Against Bottle-Feeding Mums

Amber Robinson

A UK hospital has sparked outrage by unveiling cost-cutting plans to stop supplying free milk to newborn babies.

New mothers will continue to receive free meals, but will have to buy £5 tokens from maternity ward machines to exchange for a pack of 10 bottles and teats (sounds cheap to me!)

The Rochdale Infirmary, run by the Pennine Acute Trust, stands to save $AU120,000 a year, though it claims it will sell the milk at cost. Mothers will not even be able to make their own formula or use milk prepared at home as there are no facilities to mix or store it.

So, seeing as mothers are free to breastfeed, is this discrimination?

A senior consultant at the hospital added: ‘While we encourage breastfeeding, many women are simply unable to do so. To charge them is absolutely preposterous. The ability to pay could affect how much nourishment a baby receives in its crucial first days.

The hospital argues it is unfair to ’subsidise women who choose not to breastfeed’ and stress that babies with medical requirements will have feeds given free.

I remember when I was in hospital breastfeeding was strongly encouraged, and if you wished to use formula you had to fetch your own bottles etc from the supply room. But conversely, when I had problems feeding, a dose of formula was strongly encouraged.

We hear more and more about the benefits of breastfeeding every day. If women truly can’t feed (and the hospital has lactation consultants on hand to assist), I have no problem with charging patients for their choice.

Does that make me a lactavist?

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