Karnataka's human milk bank sees steady increase in donors

Karnataka’s first government-run ‘Human Milk Bank’ - ‘Amruthadhare Human Milk Bank’ is seeing a steady increase in both the number of donors and the quantity of milk collected. The facility, which is set up at Vani Vilas Hospital, was inaugurated in March and has so far helped 450 infants with nutritious breast milk.

The milk bank helps preterm children and sick children who are treated at the neonatal ICU with breast milk.

With 209 donors providing close to 78.8 litres of milk, the facility is seeing an improved response with every passing day. In July alone, the facility collected 17 litres of milk. Of the 78.8 litres, 34.8 litres have already been utilised.

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“Now, every day we collect at least one litre of milk by counselling and motivating the mothers. We identify mothers who have excess milk and educate them on the benefits of donating milk,” said Archana, a nursing officer at the milk bank.

Milk from this bank not only helps the sick and preterm children but also those infants who are abandoned.

“At Vani Vilas, we also admit many infants owing to ongoing medico-legal cases. Also, abandoned kids are brought under our care. In these cases, the mother is not present to provide milk, and milk from the milk bank is given to these kids to ensure normal growth,” a doctor from the facility said.

However, the facility has not seen many donors from outside. Of the 209 donors, only three were outsiders who walked in with self-motivation while the others were in-house mothers who were counselled and encouraged by the staff to donate milk.

Though the milk bank caters only to the needs of the infants admitted at Vani Vilas Hospital, there has been a surge in demands from other government and private hospitals to provide the milk, the hospital authorities said.

“At any given time, we have close to 100-110 children in the neonatal ICU and with the amount of milk collected, we are able to maintain their needs. Providing for the needs of other facilities may not be possible right now,” one of the doctors at the facility said.

Yet another doctor also pointed out that ensuring the genuineness of those requesting milk is also a problem.

“As a policy decision, we do not entertain such requests. Also, since we provide milk without monetary demands, we are never sure if it is being used in the right way.”

The process

Once the milk is pumped out of the mother using an electric breast pump, it is stored at -22 degrees Celsius. Milk from many donors is pooled once a week and a pre-pasteurised sample is collected. The pooled milk is then pasteurised for 30 minutes at 62.5 degrees Celsius. The pasteurised sample is again tested. Once pasteurised, the milk can be stored for six months.