Why start a Milk Bank?
- Breastmilk saves lives, a fact widely recognised all over the world.
- Equally recognised is that there is no breastmilk substitute that provides the nutrition, protection and other benefits that breastmilk does.
- Breastmilk banks, or human milk banks, therefore play a vital role by supplying safe, screened, donated breastmilk to babies whose mothers are unable to meet their need for breastmilk.
- According to the World Health Organization, pasteurised human milk from screened donors provides the next best alternative to mother’s own breast milk.
- Premature and sick infants are most at risk of serious infections and complications should they not receive breastmilk.
- When a vulnerable baby’s own mother is unable to supply breastmilk, a breast milk bank can safely offer this life-saving gift from another mother.
- Breast milk is particularly beneficial in protecting against necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a serious and often fatal disease for premature babies – the very babies most prone to it.
- It is possible for any institution, large or small, public or private, to set up its own milk bank.
I had tried donating milk in my country but they didn’t have a system and never got back to me, so the idea of the possibility of donating made me really happy.
Opening a milk bank in an African setting, such as Queen Elisabeth Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, is one of the best things I have done during my career as a Neonatologist. It saves probably more lives than anything else I have done.
Interested in setting up a Milk Bank
Are you interested in starting a milk bank?You can read more about milk banking at:
DID YOU KNOW
Possible upward social mobility if breastfed...Breastfed infants might be more likely to show upward social mobility (movement up the social class hierarchy during the course of life) compared with those who were not breast fed, due to better health, greater stature and higher IQ associated with breastfeeding.
Donating milk is so wonderful, and one feels so good! I dropped 16 bottles off at depot this morning, feels great!
I never knew the babies I donated to, but I am very happy in the knowledge that my body was able to provide for sickly newborns whose mothers were unable to breastfeed.
