JOIN USThe state will have its second breast milk bank in 2019 as the government-run Vanivilas Women and Children's Hospital is gearing up to create one at its campus.
"The groundwork for the bank will be completed in a year and it will begin functioning from end of February 2019 ," hospital superintendent Dr Geetha Shivamurthy said.
The hospital originally intended to start the milk bank in 2017 and had forwarded a proposal to the government in 2016. Dr Geetha said the approval came only in November 2017.
She said the bank –to come up adjacent to the hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)- will be much bigger than the one currently functioning at Fortis Hospital. Doctors are studying the tools needed to process milk and the design team is visiting milk banks in medical colleges at Salem and other places in Tamil Nadu.
The bank will help feed breast milk to premature babies from various districts for free. It will also have child specialist, a microbiologist, four nurses and four consultants.
A comprehensive planning report has been created to establish the bank, Dr S Sachidananda, Director of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, said.
In October 2017, Fortis La Femme (hospital for women & children) joined forces with NGO Breast Milk Foundation (BMF) to set up the first ever breast milk bank in the state.