Kerala's first human milk bank to be opened on Feb 5

Kerala's first Human Milk Bank (HMB),a state-of-art facility will be opened at the Ernakulamgeneral hospital here on Friday by Health Minister K KShailaja.

Set up with the support of the Rotary Club of CochinGlobal, the milk bank is to ensure breast milk for new bornbabies, who are not being breastfed by their own mothers whomay be sick, deceased or due to insufficient production ofbreast milk, in the hospital.

Although approximately 3600 babies are born in thegeneral hospital a year, 600 to 1,000 sick babies are admittedinto the NICU.

''Providing the low birth-weight premature babies, infantswhose mothers are unable to provide sufficient milk and babiesseparated from mothers due to many reasons with thepasteurized breast milk from the bank will reduce the risk ofinfections and boost their immunity,'' said Dr Paul P G ofRotary Cochin Global.

Though the concept had come to India 32 years back,Kerala did not have a milk bank till now.

This is where Rotary took the lead to bring the projectto the state with two such breast milk banks - one atErnakulam and the other at Jubilee Medical Mission Hospital atThrissur.

All safety protocols and procedures for collecting,preserving and providing it to needy children will be ensuredas per government guidelines.

The collected milk can be stored up to 6 months safely inthe bank, if needed, before it is given to an infant.

In the beginning, the milk will be provided free of costto only the babies admitted in the neonatal intensive careunit of the hospital.

Later on, a network of hospitals for multiple collectionand safe distribution points will be planned.

The donors will be the mothers from the hospital who havedelivered babies there and will have all their healthstatistics available at the hospital.

''The mothers with excess milk will be encouraged toparticipate in the noble cause to save the life of other newborn babies,'' he said.

The human milk bank, which consists of a pasteurizationunit, refrigerators, deep freezers, RO plant, sterilizingequipment and computers, was set up at a cost of Rs 35 lakh.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed betweenthe state health department and Rotary Club of Cochin Globallast year for setting up the bank.

However, the project got delayed following the outbreakof COVID-19.

The Indian Medical Association(IMA) together with theIndian Association of Pediatricians (IAP) has provided atrained nursing staff for operating the milk bank at theGeneral Hospital.