The human milk bank, set up at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital (MGMGH) continues to receive donations but the doctors say that they could do with better public awareness of the facility and more donors.
The breast milk bank was set up during the World Breastfeeding Week in 2015 under a scheme to collect and preserve milk from lactating mothers at MGMGH and six other government hospitals across the state.
“Breast milk is the first vaccine for a newborn. Until the baby turns six months old, breast milk is enough to nourish it. However, sometimes, mothers are unable to feed the baby, fall ill or die during childbirth. For those babies of those mothers, the milk bank is most useful,” said R. Yeganathan, Medical Superintendent, MGMGH.
“Even today only 40% of children are exclusively fed on mother’s milk for the first six months. Infants who are not breastfed will have lower immunity and are prone to diarrhoea, pneumonia and other infectious diseases,” said K. Senthilkumar, neonatologist at the MGMGH.
Mothers, too, have a risk of contracting infections and could even be prone to breast cancer, said Dr. Yeganathan. “Apart from that, the mother-child relationship begins with breastfeeding,” he said.
The bank receives seven or eight donations in a day and in 2018, collected 83,100 ml of milk from 730 mothers and was able to feed 378 babies with it. In 2019, the bank has received 23,000 ml and has been able to feed 130 babies so far.
“A baby requires anywhere between 20- 200 ml. For the amount of milk that we require, we are able to receive donations. However, like a blood bank, if we supply to other hospitals, then the donations need to increase,” said a staff nurse at the milk bank.
Babies born outside the MGMGH are also brought for neonatal treatment and receive milk from the bank.
“Even though a large number of babies who receive milk from the bank are babies born here, some have been referred here from other private hospitals too. Another percentage of the donations go to orphaned babies who require milk but unfortunately aren't able to receive it,” Dr. Senthilkumar said, adding that sometimes abandoned babies are also given to the neonatal department to care for until they can be handed over to the Social Welfare Department.
