As one in 3 babies pre-term, human milk banks stressed for donors

So far, only 50 mothers have donated to the bank in Vijaya Hospital, while the government-run Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children (ICH) on an average receives 1-3.5 litres every day. Every day at the ICH, doctors gather new mothers to talk about the benefits of donating breast milk to the human milk bank at the hospital. At the 80-bed facility, there are pre-term babies apart from full-term new-borns. 

Professor Dr S Mangala Bharathi, consultant neonatologist and paediatrician from ICH, where the milk bank is a free service, says, “In India, 1/3rd of births are pre-term deliveries. So, donated milk can benefit these pre-term babies, apart from term babies with complications. Donation is voluntary and we give donor mothers incentives in the form of nutritional supplements. Most of the milk donated comes from mothers whose babies are admitted to the hospital, he says. “We collect between one to 3.5 litres every day. We get requests for milk from private hospitals. We are just about able to meet their needs after attending to the demand at the hospital. More banks should be set up in hospitals,” he adds. 

Vijaya Hospital, the first private hospital in the city to come up with a milk bank, has about 50 mothers donating milk. Benighta A, a senior nurse at the NICU, says they have been able to meet the needs of neonates at the hospital. They want to provide milk to babies in other hospitals as well. 

She says, “We have surrogate mothers donating, apart from women who have delivered their babies here.” Kanchi Kamakoti Childs Trust Hospital which set up a small milk bank more than a year ago, will soon scale up its operations.