J&K’s first human milk bank to come up at Maternity and Child Care Hospital, Gandhi Nagar
STATE TIMES NEWS
Jammu and Kashmir’s first human milk bank is coming up at Maternity and Child Care hospital Gandhi Nagar, Jammu and full-fledged preparations in this regard started in Gandhi Nagar Hospital.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has approved the setting up of J&K’s first ‘Milk Bank’ i.e., Comprehensive Lactation Management Centre (CLMC) in the Maternity Hospital (MCH), Gandhi Nagar, Jammu at a cost of Rs 47.20 lakh under National Health Mission (NHM).
Medical Superintendent, MCH Gandhi Nagar, Dr Arun Sharma while talking to STATE TIMES shared , ” The project has been sanctioned with the continuous efforts of Dr Ashutosh Gupta, Principal and Dean, GMC&H, Jammu and Dr Ghanshyam Saini, HoD Paediatrics under the supervision of Dr Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, Administrative Secretary, who is also chairman of NHM J&K. We are grateful for them to approve this. Preparations for Comprehensive Lactation Management Centre have started and the Milk Bank will be established on 3rd floor of the Hospital.”
It is pertinent to mention here that Maternity and Child Care Hospital Gandhi Nagar is already running state of art 150 bedded NICU and taking load of SMGS Hospital as well as periphery to manage all sick neonates.
Consultant Pediatrics, Dr Anish said, “The need of human milk bank was felt as some new-born babies remain ill or admitted in ICUs of hospitals and their mothers cannot breastfeed them owing to several reasons such as sickness, inadequate lactation, IVF due to which they remain deprived of mother’s milk.
He added that the human milk bank will benefit all those babies whose mothers are unable to breastfeed their babies due to illness, infection or some other issues. Once the bank will comes up, we would be able to breastfeed such babies. Dr Anish further added that some mothers have excess lactation and such mothers can donate it to human milk bank, where it undergoes quality checks and is then pasteurized and stored in a frozen form and when recommended, some mothers that struggle with low lactation volumes can access donor breast milk from these milk banks for their babies.
