Indore: Mother milk bank provides ‘elixir’ to dozen newborns every day

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The state’s second mother milk bank, established at Maharaja Tukojirao Holkar Hospital about a year ago, is proving to be a boon for newborns with low birth weight or those who are not able to get mother’s milk due to any reason.

MTH Hospital authorities provide donor mothers’ milk to save the lives of many newborns that are unfortunate to not have their own mothers’ milk or have low birth weight and require more milk.

“Mother's milk has disease resistance ability and can be considered as the ‘elixir’ as compared to other milk. It keeps infants safe from infections and they can even digest it well. Infants admitted to the hospital are given pasteurised milk of the donor mothers,” Dr Sunil Arya, paediatrician at MTH Hospital, said.

He said that the milk can be kept safe in cold storage at -30°C for 6 to 9 months.

“We are getting about one and a half litres of milk daily through the mothers (donor) who get admitted to MTH Hospital. With the increasing demand, we are also planning to collect milk through other donor mothers apart from mothers admitted to the hospital,” Dr Arya said.

The mother milk bank at MTH Hospital is the only facility in any government hospital in the state. Mother's milk is being made available to 10 to 15 infants admitted in the SNCU of the hospital every day.

Newborns of many districts are being benefited

“Over 300 infants have benefited from the bank in a year. Not only Indore but the babies of nearby cities are also getting benefitted as patients from Khandwa, Khargone, Burhanpur, Barwani, Dhar, Jhabua and nearby cities are approaching MTH Hospital for the same,” hospital authorities said.