Corona Virus Solution

• Topics: Health
• Pages: 5
• Words: 1206
• Date added: May 4, 2020

COVID-19 Solution

Hospitals throughout the united states have been sending new mothers’ home with goodie bags, gift bags that also include baby’s formula. Sadly, that is going to change, and new mothers will not be receiving any gifts after giving birth; let me be more specific; they will not be getting any formula. Getting rid of the formula giveaways or banning the goodie bags has been put in place to help reduce the influence of formula marketing in hospitals and to increase breastfeeding rates among the new mothers. Still, for some reason, the new law has been raising some ethical concerns for some people, mainly because it stops useful benefits to all the new mothers who cannot afford to buy formula for their new babies. Now that health authorities and pediatric doctors are researching and coming up with new laws and policies to enforce on the new mothers, hospitals are now debating if they should get rid of baby formula forever or keep supporting the new mothers. However, most hospitals have already enforced the new policy, and most mothers were not very happy. I am going to be debating both sides on whether hospitals should or should not eliminate infant formula and keep supporting the new mothers.

I believe that hospitals should eliminate baby formula giveaways because breast milk is the most important source of nutrition for infants and also help build a robust immune system. Health authorities and doctors all over the united states recommend that mothers should breastfeed their babies for about six months after birth. Even though they have suggested that mothers should breastfeed their babies up until month six, only 20% of infants in the united states are still breastfeeding at month six. Babies who are breastfed have reduced risk of asthma, obesity, type 2 diabetes, ear and respiratory infections, and sudden infant death syndrome. Also, breastfeeding is great for mothers; it can help lower their blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and prevent them from getting ovarian and breast cancer (CDC breastfeeding report card). Successful breastfeeding is set back by the distribution and advertising of infant formula. Several studies show a decrease in duration of breastfeeding when the mothers are given infant formula, they completely stop breastfeeding and go with the formula just because it is simple and easy. I feel like mother’s lack information about breastfeeding, and they need to be more educated. Now it is the hospital’s job to stop advertising the different brands of formula and start implanting more beneficial programs.

Hospitals need to eliminate formulas and begin educating mothers of the significant benefits of breastfeeding, help new mothers initiate breastfeeding right after birth. Mothers usually trust healthcare workers and stopping the distribution of free formula will convey new mothers that hospitals support breastfeeding more than formula. Mothers should be aware that formula is not a substitute for breast milk, even though the marketing is saying so, they need to understand that they are doing everything they could to sell their products. Having the hospital support these companies is wrong in so many ways. One more significant factor is formula is very expansive while breast milk is free. The formula leads families to spend hundreds of dollars on something that is very unhealthy instead of the one the body provides free of charge. I have seen people in the hospital who have asked me if I can provide them with more formula on their way out because they were unable to afford it. I had never really thought about it until writing this essay. If I could go back, I would have never handed that mother two more packs of formula. If I could go back, I would have encouraged that mother to use her natural milk, I would have provided her with more information. There were so many studies done, and one was the Formula marketing in low-income communities that shows poor mothers tend to breastfeed more than wealthy mothers, due to the income. There was also another study that shows how different cultures take breastfeeding.

Once again, being a middle eastern, we take breastfeeding seriously. I grow up in a developing country where my parents were unable to purchase formula so, my mother was breastfeeding me until I was about 12 months, and she said as soon as I turned one year, she started giving me regular milk. I turned out to be okay, I hardly get sick, my immune system is perfect, and most people in morocco are the same because they all grew up without formula. Unlike my young siblings who were born here in the united states and they have offered them formula in the hospital, and for some reason, my siblings were allergic to the regular formula, so we had to buy the most expansive one out there. Which brings me back to the poor mothers who cannot afford to buy the regular formula imagine their kids being allergic to the regular one. However, Arizona hospitals are still not implanting these policies.

I have read in a couple of researches that only a couple of hospitals in the United States are implanting these laws such as New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and I think all the hospitals should start embedding these policies. “Not all hospitals are prohibiting the bags. Administrators at several hospitals are serving low-income patients who said they intend to continue disturbing. The formula-laden gifts, unless the state order to stop (Some hospitals forgo baby-formula handout). Hospitals will not stop doing what they’re doing unless the state forces them to, and the government needs to act fast to protect the newborns and their mothers. We are in the middle of a pandemic, and people with a compromised immune system will end up getting hurt or dying from the virus as we all know that a person with a perfect immune system will survive the COVID-19. Let’s help keep our little angles safe and start eliminating formulas at the hospitals and start encouraging mothers to start breastfeeding their newborns for their safety.

Hospitals throughout the united states had made an enormous decision to reduce or ban the distribution of formula or the goodie bags to new mothers to support the baby-friendly hospital of breastfeeding. I feel like the hospital should not eliminate nor ban the delivery of the goodie bag and formula. Hospitals are supposed to support new mothers and their babies. I understand that breastfeeding is very healthy and vital for a newborn, but it should be the mother’s decision to make, and no one else. It appears that the system we have here in the United States is unequal; it makes mothers who are struggling to breastfeed or who cannot afford to buy formula feel hopeless. The decision is very unfair, especially to new mothers who are trying their best to be amazing mothers, but the system is failing them. The system has been failing women for so long, so whenever someone comes out to force a new law on women, we just let it go, and we do not usually do anything about it, and I believe it’s time to change that. Let us trust mothers and let them decide on what they want to feed their kids.