Post-graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) Principal Prof Dr Sardar Muhammad Al-freed Zafar said on Monday that a healthy mother and child were guarantors of real happiness of any family and a better future of the country.
He expressed these views while speaking at the closing ceremony of a three-day training course on baby-friendly initiatives, held here at Lahore General Hospital (LGH), with the collaboration of UNICEF.
Training was provided to 46 master trainers at the course. UNICEF executives and medical experts — Prof Faheem Afzal, Dr Nudrat Rashid and others delivered lectures on the health of infants, their protection from diseases and the importance of mother’s milk for infants while a question answer session was also held.
Prof Al-freed Zafar said that a strong nation could only be developed by ensuring healthy babies, adding that no food in the world like formula pack (canned milk) could replace breastfeeding; so only mother’s milk should be fed to infants.
He said that women visiting the department of Pediatrics & Gynecology in hospitals should be given proper training on newborn baby care, breastfeeding and other basic issues, adding that there was a need to create a breastfeeding special corner in offices so that mothers could facilitated about their babies to feed them comfortably in a safe environment.
Talking to the media, Prof Al-freed said babies should be breastfed for two years, which is the best tonic, complete food and promotes disease-fighting immunity and protects bones from weakness. Principal PGMI emphasised the participants in the course and said that spreading awareness was also an ongoing charity because if someone saves one life, it saves the entire humanity. Shields and certificates were also distributed among the participants at the end of the event in LGH.
