Telangana plans to set up more human milk banks in hospitals

“We will plan depending on the load…like in teaching hospitals in Hyderabad and Warangal, there are a large number of referral cases of neonates,” Reddy said.

These banks need lot of equipment as part of safety measures and to ensure that the milk stored does not get contaminated, he said.

Asked how many hospitals they plan to set up and by when, Reddy said, “We will be planning to establish in other hospitals one by one.”

A human milk bank or breast milk bank is a facility which collects, screens, processes and dispenses by prescription the milk voluntarily donated by nursing mothers, who are biologically not related to the recipient infant, said an official of NGO Dhaatri, which is supervising the operation of the bank in Niloufer hospital.

“At Dhaatri, we counsel mothers on the benefits of donating their extra milk,” he said.

“Some mothers who deliver babies prematurely are unable to provide the newborns with breast milk. Through a milk donor, the baby can receive all the benefits of breast milk,” the official said.

Also, mothers with health complications and those on certain medications cannot breastfeed their babies. The human milk bank could help such mothers, he added.