This 91-Year-Old Indian Doctor¡¯s Research Raised Awareness About Breastfeeding In The UK

Television commercials emphasising the importance of mother¡¯s milk flash on screens frequently. Breastfeeding provides ideal nutrition for babies, reduces disease risk and promotes healthy weight as well. However, this was not known to many, especially in western countries until Annapurna Shukla did her pioneering research.

The 91-year-old doctor from Varanasi is not only the proposer of Prime Minister Modi¡¯s candidacy but also a successful researcher. Times of India reported that Dr Shukla did her research on the importance of breast-feeding babies between 1969 and 1972.

The research was carried out in the United Kingdom and published in the British Medical Journal. She along with three other researchers studied parameters such as body weight, calorie intake, feeding pattern in infants and their correlation with obesity.

Photo: Hindi News 18/ Doctor Annapurna Shukla (middle)

Shukla told TOI ¡°We found that babies up to one year of age, who were getting solid foods and not breast milk, were obese and overweight. When the research was published, the government ordered baby food manufacturers to carry a warning that they were ¡®not a substitute for mother¡¯s milk¡¯ on their products. It upset a lot of companies. And today, we are saving babies because of this knowledge.¡±

Even the World Health Organisation now mandates that babies should be extensively breastfed for at least six months. Consequently, babies should be breastfed for one year as other items are being introduced into the infant¡¯s diet.

Photo: ANI

Dr Shukla¡¯s research was based on the vedic practice of anna prashan that introduces solids, usually in the form of milk-and-rice kheer to a child at six months. The veteran said that the founder of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya influenced her life since her childhood.

She completed her MBBS from Patna Medical College (then Prince of Wales Medical College) in 1945. After completing MBBS, she got married and started working as a medical officer at Mahila Mahavidyalay. She was one of the four practising women doctors in Varanasi at the time.

She even taught women at food science and nutrition department at BHU and motivated them to pursue valuable research. Finally, in 1969 she went to UK to do her PhD in infant nutrition, as part of which she did the groundbreaking research.