SHILLONG, March 8: Heralding a new era of care for new born babies deprived of mother’s milk, Meghalaya Governor, Satya Pal Malik today on Monday inaugurated the first ever human milk bank in the State at the Dr. H. Gordon Roberts Hospital here on the occasion of International Women’s Day celebration.
The human milk bank, which has been funded by the Rotary Club of Shillong costing Rs 10 lakh, will benefit new born babies who are deprived of mother’s milk. The mechanism is that a lactating mother will have to volunteer to donate her excess milk which would be preserved for use by any baby unable to get breast milk.
Lauding Rotary Club’s initiative, Malik said that breastfeeding is the best method of infant feeding since human milk continues to be the only milk which is tailor made and uniquely suited to human infants. Governor further said that “India faces its own unique challenges having the highest number of low birth weight babies and significant mortality and morbidity in very low birth weight (VLBW) populations. Feeding these children with breast milk can definitely reduce the risk of infections,” Malik said.
Later, while speaking to reporters, Past District Governor of Rotary, Dr Debashish Das who was instrumental in conceptualising this human milk bank project said that there are a number of babies who are born premature even as there are many babies who were born with lower birth rate and who are born sick.
“These babies require milk and the mother’s milk will be the best milk. It’s very difficult at times to manage these babies without mother’s milk. The concept of a human milk bank is the best solution to store the mother’s milk which will be given to babies who are in need of it,” Dr. Das, who is one of the senior paediatricians in the state, said.
He informed that it has been three years he had been working on this project adding that it finally materialised after the funds came from the Rotary Foundation and two clubs of USA and Bangladesh.
Asked how they are going to get the donors, he said thatinitially they will rely on the lactating mother who comes for deliveries and then they gradually when people are aware of it then it will slowly build up.
“We know that Robert Hospital has got numbers of mothers coming for delivery. So we have lactating mothers who will come forward to donate their milk from within the hospital,” Dr. Das said.
The shelf life of the milk stored in the milk bank is six months once it is stored, pasteurised and kept in a deep freezer. The key issue is the motivation of mothers to donate the excess milk. If awareness is made, the project will be game-changer.
“If this is successful then we will think of replicating it in other hospitals. Not only Rotary Club, there are many clubs in Shillong who can take up this project in the future,” Dr. Das stated.
Informing that the total cost of the equipment for setting up of this human milk bank is Rs 10 lakh, he said the equipment are indigenous and locally made adding that if the equipment had to be imported then the project cost would have gone to Rs 50 to Rs 60 lakh.
Dr Das stated that he is grateful to the administration of KJP Hospital for giving the space otherwise it would have not been possible to set up this human milk bank.
Meanwhile, Consultant Paediatrician of Dr. H. Gordon Roberts Hospital, Dr. K. Rapthap said “We will initially start feeding new born babies who are in the ICU of the hospital. We will need the support of mothers who are admitted in our maternity ward to donate in the beginning.”
She further added that the lactating mother will need to sign if they want to donate their breast milk and even parents of new born babies who require the milk will have to sign on the consent form.
Among others present on the occasion were president of Rotary Club of Shillong, Arundhati Paul, Administrative Secretary KJP Assembly, H.M. Wahlang, Senior Administrative Secretary KJP Assembly, Rev. P. Hynniewta and a host Rotarians.
It may be mentioned that in another path breaking initiative the Rotary Club of Shillong recently commissioned two sets of manually operated Sanitary Pad Vending machines at St. Joseph Higher Secondary School, Pynthorbah, Shillong and Sacred Heart Girls Higher Secondary School, Mawlai, Shillong.