Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 3: The first-ever human milk bank of Jammu and Kashmir is coming up at Maternity and Childcare Hospital (MCH) Gandhi Nagar, Jammu to ensure that every newborn may get mother’s milk for at least initial six months.
Official sources told Excelsior that the human milk bank is likely to be established at MCH Gandhi Nagar and preparation for this are going on. They said the bank has been proposed to be set up under newly opened Super Speciality Department of Neonatology in Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu.
Sources said that the need of human milk bank was felt as some new-born babies remain ill or admitted in ICUs of hospitals and their mothers cannot breastfeed them owing to several reasons such as sickness, inadequate lactation, surrogacy/IVF due to which they remain deprived of mother’s milk.
“The human milk bank will benefit all those babies whose mothers are unable to breastfeed their babies due to infection or some other reasons. Once the bank comes up, we would be able to breastfeed such babies exclusively for six months and the problems which we witness in such babies, like diarrhea and pneumonia will certainly be reduced,” they added.
Stating that mother’s milk is the primary source of nutrition for newborns and contains substances that help protect an infant against infection & inflammation and contribute to healthy development of the immune system but unfortunately some mothers cannot breastfeed their babies, sources said the human milk bank can come to the rescue of such mothers.
When contacted, Medical Superintendent, MCH Gandhi Nagar, Dr Arun Sharma said, “The human milk bank is in proposal and we are doing all preparations to establish it as early as possible. Moreover, the space for the bank has been identified as 3rd floor of the hospital.” Asked how much time it will take, he said that they can’t give any timeline as of now but once the proposal is submitted and approved, and required funds sanctioned, the bank will be established within days.
Dr Ghanshyam Singh Saini, HoD Paediatrics at SMGS Hospital (GMC Jammu) said that they are planning to establish first human milk bank of J&K at MCH Gandhi Nagar and preparations in this connection are underway. He said they are planning to establish this unit so that they can collect milk on a voluntary basis and give the babies after pasteurizing it. He said this milk can be used for around six months after pasteurizing it.
He said that some mothers have excess lactation and such mothers can donate it to human milk bank, where it undergoes quality checks and is then pasteurized and stored in a frozen form and when recommended, some mothers that struggle with low lactation volumes can access donor breast milk from these milk banks for their babies.
Dr Saini added that pasteurized donor milk may be used for premature babies, babies born to mothers who have difficulty in breastfeeding or are on certain medications and suffering from infectious diseases.
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