At GMCH, babies banking on breast milk donations

Charu Chhibber

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 7

The human milk bank at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, is small, spotless and silent. Little bottles of pasteurised breast milk stocked in enormous stainless steel freezers await tiny “customers”. A deep freezer in a corner, filled with bags of this “liquid gold”, is waiting to be pasteurised.

The young staff of the bank welcome in a sleepy-looking new father with a petite, pink baby in his arms. Sanjeev Singh’s wife isn’t producing enough milk yet for their two-day-old daughter and he is here to get his daughter’s “lunch”.

Within minutes, a staff member feeds the baby with a bottle and the father-daughter duo exits, leaving behind a smiling nurse.

The region’s first human milk bank, that opened at the GMCH in September, is doing “brisk business”. Over the past two months, the bank has generated nearly 30 litres of milk, which has fed nearly 100 infants, that too free of cost.

The bank regularly receives, screens and pasteurises breast milk from donor mothers and provides it to premature and sick babies born in the hospital. It also caters to those infants whose mothers are physiologically unable to breastfeed.

“For premature infants, donor milk can be life-saving,” says Dr Deepak Chawla, Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics, GMCH, who, along with his colleague, Prof Suksham Jain, manages the bank, set up at a cost of Rs 10 lakh.

Dr Chawla says, “Pre-term babies are prone to infections and are considerably under-weight. Providing human breast milk to these fragile neonates can cut the risk of infection considerably and help save their lives.”

Currently, the bank has a capacity of three liters. “We will increase this once we have enough finances and human resources,” he said, adding counselling sessions for all mothers were being held in the hospital to encourage them to donate milk.

Bank eyes expansion

“Every day, we have about 25 to 30 deliveries in the hospital, including several pre-term births. Currently, the bank is catering to the requirements of the babies born in the hospital. We are hopeful that in the next one year, we will be able to expand and cater to the needs of babies born outside the hospital,” Dr Chawla said.