The State’s first human milk bank has been established under the aegis of the Rotary Club of Tirupati. It will be inaugurated at the Government Maternity Hospital in Tirupati on Wednesday, April 3.
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The idea is to encourage mothers endowed with surplus milk to donate it. Mothers who unfortunately lost their infants or women who had a failed delivery are also considered probable donors.
“Their consent will be of great help as an estimated 8 lakh infants are deprived of mother’s milk in India,” says T. Damodaram, chairman of the Rotary Human Milk Bank project.
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As formula milk cannot provide all the essential nutrients, mother’s milk has become an indispensable form of feed. As there are very few such facilities in India, we have come up with this proposal, says the project’s co-chairman, M. Hemachandra.
After scientifically testing the donors, the milk collected from them will be pasteurised and stored in deep freezers at the bank to be used for a maximum period of three months. The collected milk will be fed to infants free of cost.
The bank is established at the second floor of the hospital building, which will be formally inaugurated by the Collector G. Lakshmisha and MCT Commissioner Aditi Singh, in the presence of Rotary District Covernor Uday Kumar Bhaskara and Director of Medical Education D.S.V.L. Narasimham.