“Every drop counts,” says Dr V Booma. “Breast milk is packed with immunoglobins. It helps ward off diarrhoea, respiratory infections as well as provides, nutrition and builds the intelligence quotient, and immunity in the baby. This is something that artificially made formula milk can never match up to.” Booma is the nodal officer, special neo-natal care unit and head of Pediatrics at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital ( CMCH) , which has a fully-functional human milk bank for the last three years. “Any mother who is feeding her own baby can donate. All she needs is a generous heart. The more she gives, the better the milk production to feed her own baby,” she explains.
WHO recommendation
World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) that runs from August 1 to 7 globally is promoted worldwide by World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action(WABA), World Health Organisation (WHO ) and UNICEF to achieve the goal of getting mothers to breastfeed their children for the first six months. “WHO recommends six months of exclusive breastfeeding and an extended breast feeding to two years with supplements to raise a healthy baby,” says Booma.
“We also need awareness on extended breast feeding and the process of breast feeding,” says Swati Jagdish, of Coimbatore Parenting Network (CPN), an active peer group on Facebook that has over 4000 members. “Breast milk is tailor-made for babies. Besides nutrients, vitamins and proteins, it also has anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic properties. Bottle-fed babies often develop high-arched upper palates that can lead to breathing problems. The process of breast feeding is essential for the development of the baby’s head and neck, and for good dental health.”
Helping pre-term babies
Dr Booma says that, of the 100 newborns admitted at the GH on a daily basis, more than 50 per cent are underweight or pre-term. “These babies require assisted feeding and a few drops of breast milk can be a life saviour. As their mothers are recuperating and unable to feed their own babies, the donor’s milk is a boon.”
Though the milk bank is self-sufficient, they still need more donors. “There is awareness. Most of our donors now are moms who are admitted at the GH. Some private hospitals refer new mothers to us. CPN members also donate regularly. A lactating mother should be confident enough to donate. She needs motivation from her extended family members and society. ”
This year’s WBW theme is Breastfeeding: The Foundation of Life . “This drives home the message that, even in places hit by famine or drought, in situations where a mother is malnourished, she can continue to breast feed her baby,” says S Kanimozhi, lactation educator and counsellor. “There are a lot of positive changes in the corporate set up that supports a breast feeding mother. Working moms can always demand a space to breast feed. While mothers are aware now, we have to educate support groups like the immediate family.”
Spreading awareness
Kanimozhi enrolled for a course in lactation to help other moms and spread awareness. “I suffered without help when I had my baby. As a lactation consultant, I spend an hour with new moms, help the baby latch on and establish skin-to-skin contact between mother and child. To motivate breast milk donation, we encourage new moms to visit the bank at GH to see for themselves the impact a few drops of their breast milk can make to an ailing baby.”
Peer support groups on social media have played a big role in building awareness, adds Swati, who runs Bond and Beyond, a centre for pregnancy health, lactation and post-partum counselling. “ And, professional help is now available in the form of lactation consultants. We made videos of young mothers who have breast fed for two years and above and circulated it on the peer group to motivate new moms to follow suit.”
Donating breast milk
Breast milk can be pumped and stored in sterile containers at room temperature for six hours without any preservatives
Under refrigeration, it can be stored for 24 hours and then transported with ice packs
In deep freeze state, it stays fresh for months but can be preserved in this form only at a bank where there are facilities like uninterrupted power supply
There is a pre- and post-preservation procedure before storing when the milk is tested for bacteria and microbes. The milk is also pasteurised
At the milk bank, a donor has to fill a consent form and use the break milk pump to collect milk into a sterile container
