The need to use the maternity ward of the Conde de São Januário Hospital Center (CHCSJ) for Covid-19 patients is separating newborns from their mothers, the public broadcaster reported.
According to TDM sources among mothers and mothers-to-be, all newborns are being separated from their mothers immediately after birth and are being placed in a different ward. This makes it impossible for mothers to see or breastfeed their babies for the entire period they remain in hospital care.
One of the mothers said she had not been informed of this arrangement before giving birth and it had not been raised at any appointments nor when she had arrived at the hospital to give birth. She had only found out that she would not be permitted to see and breastfeed her daughter after she had given birth.
This mother also said she had only learnt of the reasons behind the separation from the hospital’s pediatrician, and only after she had requested to speak to them about it.
According to the pediatrician, it is not possible for mothers to be with their babies and to breastfeed them as the neonatology department has no available space for that purpose.
Another mother-to-be, warned by the first one, is said to have reached out to the Health Bureau (SSM) to learn more.
This mother-to-be said that, according to the information she had collected via the phone from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the decision to separate mothers from their newborns was one made by the hospital as they were using the second floor for “other purposes.”
As cited in the state media report, both women explained they are very concerned and discontented with this decision to deprive them from access to their newborns, particularly for the purpose of breastfeeding.
This comes precisely at a time when the government focusses on the birth rate in Macau as one of its policies for this and upcoming years, a topic that was also discussed at the Legislative Assembly (AL) last month when the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture went to the plenary to reply to questions from lawmakers.
To increase the birthrate, the government has recently proposed a new law for medically assisted reproduction techniques that has already been passed on its first reading at the AL and is now being discussed in detail at the Second Standing Committee.
The benefits of the contact between mothers and newborns in the first hours or days of life and the adoption of breastfeeding exclusively for at least the first six months of life is well established and has been intensively promoted by both the World Health Organization and the SSM who have a special webpage dedicated to the topic. The SSM has also launched several promotional campaigns in recent years that led, among other things, to the creation of breastfeeding rooms in all public facilities and in some large-sized private companies.
Although this issue is new to CHCSJ, for years separation of mothers and newborns was a regular practice in the Kiang Wu Hospital. Nonetheless, mothers are allowed to breastfeed, if they wish to do so, and to have contact with their babies at least twice a day in the case of natural childbirth. Reduced contact and access to newborns happens in the cases of birth via cesarean section; in these cases access is permitted when mothers can move independently to the newborns’ room. For surgical procedures, this can take several days.
