Rotary Sunrise Opens a New Lactation Lounge at K.H.M.H.  

This morning at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, members of Rotary Club Sunrise, Courts Belize, and K.H.M.H. staff were present for the opening of a lactation lounge where mothers and their newborns will be able to breastfeed in comfort.  The room was renovated by members of the Rotary and furnished with various appliances by Courts.  Baby-friendly hospitals are essential for supporting breastfeeding and promoting the health of newborns and their mothers.  News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

 

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Breastfeeding is not simply a lifestyle decision, it is an investment in health for both the baby and the mother.  Breast milk contains the perfect balance of nutrients, is easily digested, and its composition changes to meet the baby’s needs, especially during the first month of life.  At the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, a room has been furnished with all the amenities necessary for a mother and her newborn to bond.

 

Chandra Cansino, C.E.O., Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital

“In a lot of cases, depending on the type of deliveries that the mothers have, they breastfeed their babies in the bed or at their bedside.  However, some are not new mothers, some are already lactating mothers, and we have staff that are lactating mothers, so it’s really to provide an environment where anybody that comes to the hospital needs to breastfeed or to extract milk, they have a safe space to do that.  And so, this is what the lounge will serve as.”

 

Baby-friendly hospitals allow for early initiation of breastfeeding and encourage immediate and uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact after birth.  Breastfeeding benefits mothers by reducing the risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer.  As part of its community outreach initiative, Rotary Club of Belize (Sunrise) saw the importance of creating a lactation lounge at the KHMH based on a particular need.

 

Misty Michael, President, Rotary Club, Sunrise

“One of our fellow Rotarians, Dr. Selma Bermudez, is actually an epidemiologist here at the hospital.  She was aware of the situation with the room at the time and that the hospital was in need of assistance in renovating it.  She brought the project to the club, our service projects committee evaluated the potential project.  One of the areas of focus for Rotary is maternal and child health, so we saw it fitting that it was a project that our club should partner on.”

 

Rotary Sunrise, in bringing the project to life, turned to Courts Belize for assistance.  Its parent company, Unicomer, took advantage of the opportunity and donated furniture and appliance.

 

Gaylene Tesucum, Marketing Manager, Unicomer Belize

“We have recliners.  We want mom to be very comfortable and this is the ideal time, it’s Mother’s Day and I am so happy that this is launched during Mother’s Day.  We have recliners.  Our new moms just went through a whole lot.  They went through nine months and their bodies have gone through a lot.  We want them to be comfortable so we have some comfortable seating arrangements with the recliners.  We also have a fridge that we donated as well.  We want to keep the breast milk cool because they will have more breast milk.  And then we have baby gear. We see the need for it, for new moms and the importance of breastfeeding in the formative years of a child’s life and we said, definitely, we’d like to be a part of this.”

 

Baby-friendly hospitals are essential for supporting breastfeeding and promoting the health of newborns and mothers.  The Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative was launched by UNICEF and the World Health Organization.  The Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital was officially recognized as a baby friendly hospital in 2008.

 

Chandra Cansino

“Since then, we have been evaluated externally, every two years to make sure that we are meeting the international standards and one of those is to make sure that we have a lactation area.  We did have one before but it was not as nice as this and so we are extremely grateful.  This is very comfortable and it will facilitate both patients and staff if they need to either extract milk or breastfeed.”

 

This initiative is not just about improving breastfeeding rates; it’s about ensuring that all aspects of care for mothers and babies are optimized to promote health and well-being from the start. Isani Cayetano for News Five.