Regular needs hit at breast milk bank

While mother’s milk is required not only to treat babies that are admitted at ICH but also for those infants abandoned and taken care of by hospital authorities, Dr C N Kamalarathnam, the head of neonatology department here said, “We generally require around 1500-1800 ml of milk every day but there are only 10 mothers on an average daily who donate milk. Sometimes, we keep stock of at least 3-4 litres, but the demand increases if more number of children are admitted”.

The donated breast milk, meanwhile, is collected, and after cooling and pasteurisation, it is stored at -18 degree Celsius so that it can be used for at least three months.

The milk is also tested for any contamination before being dispensed to the infant. The milk is used to benefit those infants whose mothers have lactation failure, besides the premature and the abandoned babies.

“The routine donors are the mothers of those children who are admitted in the ward and they dispense only two times a day. A new mother usually dispenses at least 30-50ml of milk per sitting. We do not, however, see much motivation among the mothers to donate milk and the awareness among the general public is also low,” said Dr Kamalarathnam.

There are few mothers who dispense milk, collect and send it to ICH, while others come and donate it during the weekends. Whenever the demand for mother’s milk increases, the hospital staff also counsel the women availing the outpatient services to donate milk. This practice has been quite useful in meeting the requirement of the milk for the infants admitted in the hospital. However, it is not being practised on a regular basis as the hospital lacks enough staff to go for collection and for the counselling of mothers as staff nurses are left to take care of patients in the wards also. “It is usually the ward staff nurses who counsel the new mothers and encourage them to donate milk. However, we are considering to recruit staff for the counselling of outpatient visitors and the same has to be decided by the State Health department,” said Dr Jeyachandran, ICH director.

Dr Jayashree Jayakrishnan, lactation consultant and counsellor at ICH mentions another problem hitting the supply of milk. “There are babies whose mothers will be ill, whereas there are mothers who can dispense milk but the infant would not be fit enough to feed on it. However, mothers deny to donate milk and hesitate to help other infants. Even if a mother is willing to donate, her relatives do not let them,” she said. “However, the scenario has improved over the years and there is a scope of increased awareness among new mothers. Social media has also helped to encourage new mothers to donate milk,” she added.

With the upcoming week being regarded as breastfeeding week, the hospital authorities are planning to honour volunteering breast milk donors in order to encourage more new mothers to do the same.