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Mother’s milk must at 11 Rajasthan hospitals, other milk banned
Newborns at 11 government hospitals in Rajasthan, which have Aanchal Mothers’ Milk Bank, will be breastfed or given human milk free.
Newborns at 11 government hospitals in Rajasthan, which have Aanchal Mothers’ Milk Bank, will be breastfed or given human milk free.
The health department issued an order on Wednesday to ban formula, dairy (packed and open), cow, goat and other milk for newborns at the hospitals.
The newborns have to be breastfed; if a mother is unable to feed the newborn, or the baby is premature and unable to suck, then human milk will be provided free to the child, the order said.
“For the first time in India, all kinds of milk have been banned in 11 government hospitals other than human milk, which is a big achievement in Rajasthan,” said Devendra Agarwal, adviser to the state health department for the mother milk bank project.
Rajasthan is the first state to invest ₹10 crore in human milk banking with an operation cost of ₹5 crore per annum. “Mother’s milk reduces neonatal mortality by 22% and recovery of newborns admitted to intensive care units increases by 40%,” Agarwal told Hindustan Times.
The state has 13 human milk banks – at Rabindranath Tagore Medical College in Udaipur, 10 district hospitals in Bharatpur, Alwar, Chittorgarh, Beawar, Banswara, Bhilwara, Bundi, Tonk, Baran and Churu, at Sawai Man Singh Medical College in Jaipur run by the Norway government, and one in private Mahatma Gandhi Medical College in Jaipur.
Agarwal said, “Newborns (up to 28 days), admitted in hospitals and not getting mother’s milk, will be provided milk from Aanchal Mothers’ Milk Bank. Milk will be provided to family members on requisition from the nursing staff.”
Aanchal Mothers’ Milk Bank started operating in 11 government facilities, except SMS Medical College and Mahatma Gandhi Medical College in Jaipur, between February 2016 and April this year, Agarwal said.
In all, 3576 lactating mothers donated 6,32,753ml milk at the 11 hospitals till April 30; as many as 1669 newborns were provided 10628 units (one unit is 30ml) of mother milk and 8715 units are stocked now.
