It’s a white revolution of a different kind. Coming close on the heels of what’s been achieved in Mumbai, Pune will soon have its own human milk bank at the government-run Sassoon hospital. With 8000-odd women giving birth to children here every year, such a milk bank will surely come as a boon for babies who cannot be breastfed by their own mothers with breast milk being the new, all-important replacement feed for premature and sick babies. Dr Sandhya Khadse, HoD, paediatrics at B J Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, will bring to the table her experience in the running of the milk bank in Mumbai. “The mortality rate of infants at Sassoon, with simple measures like cleanliness and hygiene, has shot down from 41 deaths in January to 18 deaths in March this year,’’ says Khadse. There is a need to promote breast feeding and human milk given to a pre-term baby on a ventilator prevents diabetes, asthma and other allergies, say neonatologists. According to Khadse, abandoned and sick babies have benefited due to the human milk banks at Mumbai’s government hospitals — something that’s now being tried out at Sassoon. “We will collect milk from mothers who have delivered babies, pasteurise and store the milk in the deep freezer. This extra milk can last for six months. We have displayed a chart so that mothers know how to wash their hands properly before breastfeeding their child,’’says Khadse who is in the process of motivating the mothers to save their extra milk for another baby. After Asia’s first human milk bank founded by Dr Armida Fernandez at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General hospital in Mumbai created a record with the largest collection of litres of milk from ‘mother donors’, the feat is now being emulated by other corporation hospitals in Mumbai and for the first time in Pune where a government hospital has taken the lead to set up such a facility. The success story of Sion human milk bank where 924 litres of milk had been collected from mother donors in the last couple of years has prompted other hospitals to follow suit. Going the extra mile Timely initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding of babies born in hospitals is improving but more needs to be done for women delivering at home as well as continuing the hospital based promotion of appropriate infant feeding. These issues will be taken up at a meeting of the South Asian Infant Feeding Research Network group consisting of paediatricians and public health personnel from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan.
