Medicos from MP, Goa will get training at milk bank in Mumbai’s hospital

The human breast milk bank at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, Sion, has been recognised as the zonal reference centre of western region. The medical practitioners

The human breast milk bank at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, Sion, has been recognised as the zonal reference centre of western region. The medical practitioners from neonatology department of the hospital will train doctors from neighbouring states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Goa along with Maharashtra in forming milk banks at their hospitals.

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“We have recently being recognised as the zonal reference centre of the western region. We will have the responsibility to train and guide doctors from neighbouring states in constructing their own human milk banks where the demand is more,” said Dr Swati Manerkar, assistant professor of the department.

This month, the department trained two sets of doctors from Madhya Pradesh at the hospital. Dr Manerkar said, “It was a three-day programme. We explained to them how to maintain hygiene, pasteurise milk and save milk from contamination.”

They were also given training in maintaining laboratory records, processing donated milk and creating awareness about the need for milk donation.

The process of training will be done in three categories — primary lactating support unit, secondary lactating management unit and tertiary comprehensive centre. “Depending on the demand and the number of patients, the unit would be categorised. But we will encourage district hospitals where footfalls of patients are high to constitute tertiary centre which would be beneficial to more patients and newborn children,” she added.

The human milk bank at the Sion hospital is the oldest one in the state. It was set up in 1989 under the initiative of Dr Jayashree Mondkar, head of the department of neonatology unit. It was Asia’s first milk bank that was started in a civic-run hospital.

Human milk bank works like blood banks where breast milk is provided to newborn babies. Nursing mothers collect excessive milk for donation. Breast milk is compulsory for newborn babies to increase their immunity and make them healthy, especially for underweight children. When babies are at a risk of developing infection from mothers through breastfeeding or the mother has died or too weak to feed her child, they are given milk from the milk bank. After milk is donated, it goes through a series of scrutiny to rule out any chance of contamination. Any healthy mother who is not HIV, hepatitis and other communicable disease negative can donate her milk.

This year, so far, 620 litres of milk was donated, and 1,070 litres was collected in 2018.