What is Breastfeeding?
Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival. However, nearly 2 out of 3 infants are not exclusively breastfed for the recommended 6 months—a rate that has not improved in 2 decades. Breastmilk is the ideal food for infants. It is safe, clean, and contains antibodies that help protect against many common childhood illnesses. Breastmilk provides all the energy and nutrients that the infant needs for the first months of life, and it continues to provide up to half or more of a child’s nutritional needs during the second half of the first year, and up to one third during the second year of life.
Breastfed children perform better on intelligence tests, are less likely to be overweight or obese, and are less prone to diabetes later in life. Women who breastfeed also have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers.
Benefits of Breastfeeding for the Baby
Breast milk provides the ideal nutrition for infants. It has a nearly perfect mix of vitamins, protein, and fat — everything your baby needs to grow. And it’s all provided in a form more easily digested than infant formula. Breast milk contains antibodies that help your baby fight off viruses and bacteria. Breastfeeding lowers your baby’s risk of having asthma or allergies. Plus, babies who are breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months, without any formula, have fewer ear infections, respiratory illnesses, and bouts of diarrhea. They also
have fewer hospitalizations and trips to the doctor.
Breastfeeding Benefits for the Mother
Breastfeeding burns extra calories, so it can help you lose pregnancy weight faster. It releases the hormone oxytocin, which helps your uterus return to its pre-pregnancy size and may reduce uterine bleeding after birth. Breastfeeding also lowers your risk of breast and ovarian cancer. It may lower your risk of osteoporosis, too. Since you don’t have to buy and measure formula, sterilize nipples, or warm bottles, it saves you time and money. It also gives you regular time to relax quietly with your newborn as you bond.
Karnataka High Court on Right to Breastfeed
In a significant decision, the Karnataka High Court has held that Breastfeeding is an inalienable right of the lactating mother, protected as a facet of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution [Husna Banu vs State of Karnataka]. “In the light of domestic law and the international law as briefly discussed above, breastfeeding needs to be recognized as an inalienable right of the lactating mother; similarly, the right of the suckling infant for being breastfed too, has to be assimilated with mother’s right; arguably, it is a case of concurrent rights; this important attribute of motherhood is protected under the umbrella of Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India”
In this Habeas Corpus petition, the baby was stolen from the biological mother and given to the foster mother, the court observed that the child needs to breastfeed otherwise the child will become weak and his lactating mother have a full right to feed the kids. The court also said that genetic parents can do better care of a child than the foster mother and the child also need his biological parents because they have a soul connection and the parents treat them as a part of their same body.
The foster mother cannot do those things for a child which the biological mother can do. And in this case, the foster mother was not having any child but the biological mother was already having children at home, so, the biological mother was already having an experience that how to raise children and how to treat them,
educate them and keep hygiene and on other hand, the foster mother was lacking that experience. The court also said that the child cannot live with strangers.
Article25 (2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 24 of the International Covenant on the Civil and political rights recognize the right of the child for their protection as they are minor and it is also a duty of a family, society, and government to protect them and their rights. It was very bad and lack of care that the child remained un breastfed, it is an age, where the child cannot consume any other thing except mother’s milk and the child, was not getting that, this thing was very dangerous for the child, this could have caused death also and the child continuously cries when he is hungry so due to that the child has lost a lot of energy which can make the child weak and have created serious complications for a child.
That was very wrong that the child suffered due to the stupidity of the foster mother. So, the child was given back to the biological mother because she needs to feed the child and the child needs the mother’s milk, biological parents can raise the child better than foster mother and no one have a right to steal kids, and foster mother was not having any experience that how to raise children and she was not able to breastfeed the child.
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