First human milk bank in Kerala

Kerala's first human milk bank (HMB) with state-of-the-art facility will be launched by Health Minister KK Selja on February 5,at the General Hospital in Ernakulam here. The milk bank set up in collaboration with Rotary Club of Cochin Global is to ensure breast milk for newborns.

Breast milk will be made available in the hospital to infants whose mothers cannot breastfeed due to illness, death or insufficiency. Although about 3600 children are born in a year in a hospital and 600 - 1,000 sick children are admitted to NICU.

The project supervisor, Madhav Chandran, former Governor of Rotary said, "Though the concept had come to India 32 years ago, Kerala did not have a milk bank till now. This is where Rotary Club took the lead to bring the project to the state with two such breast milk banks -- one in Ernakulam and the other at Jubilee Medical Mission Hospital in Thrissur." The Rotary Club of Cochin Global has laid the supporting foundation for the project.

Madhav informed that all the required safety protocols and procedures for collecting, preserving and distributing milk have been ensured keeping a close contact with the guidelines of the government. The durability of the milk in the bank can last upto six months . At the earlier stage, the milk will be free of cost and will be provided only to the babies admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of the hospital. Moving on to the next stage there will be a plan of a network of hospitals arranged for multiple collection and safe distribution points.

"Providing pasteurised breast milk from the bank to low birth-weight premature babies, infants whose mothers are unable to provide sufficient milk and babies separated from mothers due to various reasons can help reduce the risk of infections and boost their immunity,” said Dr Paul P G of Rotary Cochin Global.