Shy mother ‘forced to breastfeed’ at clinic
A shy young mother was forced to breastfeed her seven-week-old boy in the presence of male and female staff.
On the morning of 15 February, 22-year-old Sarah Jonk took her seven-week-old baby boy for one of his injections at the Lewisham State Clinic where she said she was then forced by the staff to breastfeed her son because he “looked underfed”.
Sarah told the News that she was asked to go to one of the backrooms by a staff member after she gave her son a glycerine layered dummy.
“I was under the impression that I was not allowed to bottle feed my child at the clinic. I was told this when I went there before,” the young mother told the News.
She said he was becoming restless because they waited in the queue for a very long time.
The employee called Sarah to the backroom and firstly expressed her unhappiness about the baby ingesting glycerine, Sarah remembered. The staff member told Sarah that glycerine was not good for the baby.
The woman proceeded to tell Sarah to breastfeed her child “or she would take him away because it looks like I can’t look after my son”.
Sarah found this instruction not only rude, but for a shy person, very difficult. She said she does not even breastfeed in front of her husband. The employee proceeded, as Sarah explained, to tell her that she will take away her child if Sarah does not feed the child.
“I started crying and refusing, then the woman pressed his head against my breast and forced me to have him drink.”
Sarah said she was forced to breastfeed her unwilling child for over an hour in the presence of both female and male staff walking in and out of the room.
“I have lodged previous complaints at the Krugersdorp clinic about the Lewisham clinic, but I have gotten no responses and I feel it is useless to complain again,” she said.
Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, said this is a totally unwarranted bullying by an official who should be disciplined.
“Patients should always be treated with dignity and respect, and not shamed in front of others,” he said.
In his answer for a question about the safety of glycerine, Professor Eugene Weinberg, a pediatric allergist, said it has been used for many years on the dummies of babies.
“Glycerine is a sweetening agent and as such may be bad for teeth in infants. While your baby may not have teeth yet, in two months or so he will, so it is probably best not to get him used to the sweet taste of glycerine on his dummy,” he said.
The News has approached the Gauteng Department of Health for comment, but no response was given by the time this article was published.
You might also be interested in:
Backlog at Sterkfontein causes trial delays
Hospital refuses to comment about death of mom and baby
