The slogans cry our messages such as ´Women should have nutrient food during pregnancy´ and ´A child should be breastfed within an hour of birth´, among others, and the slogans are accompanied by breastfeeding related posters. But, the scenario in the maternity hospital is quite different.
According to the women who give birth at the hospital, they are forced to breastfeed their babies in an empty stomach as the hospital offers substandard foods and drinks to them. [break]
“The food served to patients by the hospital is really disgusting. You can barely see lentil in the lentil soup provided by the hospital. And in the name of vegetables, all they offer is salt water,” said Tul maya Sanisi of Thimi, Bhaktapur, a patient admitted in the general ward.
She further said that she has been breastfeeding her baby for the last three days in an empty stomach. “I want to leave the hospital as soon as possible. I cannot breastfeed my child if stomach is empty all the time. In addition, the hospital seems to be in a very poor condition,” she complained.
She said she was lucky to have eaten a proper meal one day when her relative brought the food for her in the hospital. “I have not eaten properly since then,” she added.
Sanisi is not only the patient to express distaste for the food offered by the hospital. Almost all the patients admitted in the hospital echoed the same.
“As the food offered by the hospital is bad, I am living on boiled water,” said another patient Prana Gurung, resident of Jorpati.
She said that her five days of stay at the hospital so far has remained troublesome. “And I do not know how long I will have to face the ordeal,” she added.
To make her condition worse, she has no one to look after her as her husband is in the Gulf. She has been eating food that she orders from the hospital cafeteria.
The hospital provides Rs 1000 to women who deliver at the hospital. “We do not need the delivery incentive. It would have been better if the hospital used the incentive amount to offer us quality food,” opined Gurung.
According to the hospital, it spends over 1.9 million annually on food for patients. “Every day, we offer food to over 80 patients coming to the hospital. But we are unaware about the quality of the food,” said Amar Amatya, administrative officer at the hospital.
Chief of the hospital, Puspa Chaudhary said, “As I recently got transferred to the hospital, I am yet to know the condition of the hospital. If the food offered by the hospital is really of low quality, we will make necessary changes.”
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