Putrajaya Hospital declared baby-friendly centre

The Putrajaya Hospital is getting crowded following a population boom in areas around the federal administrative centre.
Hospital authorities say that more maternity wards and special care nurseries are needed.
According to Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department head Dr Wan Ahmad Hazim Wan Ghazali, 5,414 mothers were admitted to the hospital for delivery last year.
“This is five times the number of mothers admitted to our hospital in 2001. We expect the number to increase further.
“We are located in a residential area where the people are still within the reproductive age. The number of residents here has yet to reach a plateau,” he said at a ceremony to declare the hospital a baby-friendly medical institution yesterday.
The hospital is popular with expectant mothers who favour its spanking new maternity facilities, said to be among the best in the country.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said many parents also chose to have their babies at the hospital because they want to have “Putrajaya” on their children’s birth certificate as the place of birth.
“We have mothers coming here from as far as Seremban, Nilai and Banting. We cannot turn away patients, despite them not working or living around here,” he said.
He also expressed disappointment that many private hospitals still did not promote breastfeeding among new mothers.
Earlier, Dr Wan Ahmad said that women who breastfed had less risk of developing breast cancer.
“When breastfeeding, the prolactin hormone will rise while oestrogen is reduced, which can then retard the growth of cancer cells,” he said, adding that the risk declined by 4.3% for every year that a mother breastfed and 7% for every new birth.
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