Undertakes initiatives to enable mothers to breastfeed out-of-home by setting up exclusive breastfeeding rooms, across 150 Cities
Breastfeeding room locator to identify breastfeeding rooms within 10Km radius
NESTLÉ HOUSE, AUGUST 5, 2016: On the occasion of World Breastfeeding Week, Nestlé India strengthens its commitment to breastfeeding. Recognizing the significance and necessity of breastfeeding for a healthier tomorrow, the company has undertaken several initiatives to raise awareness and support breastfeeding as the best way to provide nutrition to infants.
Putting into action a plan to set up 1000 exclusive Breastfeeding Rooms in 150 cities, Nestlé India has already made operational, 826 breastfeeding rooms in clinics, across the country. Around 200 of them are located in Metros and others are in smaller cities. The rooms are equipped with basic facilities to help mothers’ breastfeed comfortably.
A Breastfeeding Room Locator tool, which is hosted on the ‘Start Healthy Stay Healthy’ website, allows users to locate breastfeeding rooms in a 10 km radius around them. This facility is currently available in the states of Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh and will gradually roll out Pan-India.
To educate the immediate family members and support system of a nursing mother, Nestlé India has also launched a campaign on how to help raise ‘Superbabies’. The campaign talks about the actions that fathers, grandmothers, friends and employers/bosses can take, to support a mother to breastfeed.
In addition to these initiatives, the company revised and extended Maternity Leave Policy from 18 to 24 months. A paternity leave policy has also been introduced in the recent past.
Speaking on the occasion of World Breast Feeding Week, Mr. Fabrice Cavallin, General Manager, Nutrition, Nestlé India says, “We firmly believe that breast milk is the first and best source of nutrition for the baby. We have been working consistently over the years to create and spread awareness on the benefits of breastfeeding by engaging with communities. We hope that through sustained efforts we will be able to make our contribution in increasing the breastfeeding rates of the country.”