The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Mother’s milk: food for thought

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Mother’s milk: food for thought

R. Sujatha

CHILDS Trust Hospital announces its proposal on a milk bank

Mumbai hospital encourages mothers to donate their milk
Government yet to consider opening of milk banks

CHENNAI: Every year, the first week of August is observed as breastfeeding week, with paediatric wings in hospitals organising programmes and healthy baby contests to drive home the importance of breastfeeding.

Despite such measures, a number of new mothers who breastfeed their children drop out after the third month. Doctors say one reason is because the mother is constrained as she has to return to work. In other cases, advertisements for formula feed lure mothers away.

Studies around the world and affirmation from world bodies such as the World Health Organisation and United Nations Children’s Fund have not produced the desired results, neonatologists point out.

They blame the aggressive marketing of formula feed for weaning mothers away from breast milk.

“Exclusive breast feeding means not even water should be given to the child. Immediately after birth most mothers start feeding. A small survey in pockets show that only 30 to 35 per cent continue up to three months and by six months it falls drastically,” says K. Githa, Neonatology head, the Institute of Child Health.

“Diarrhoea and respiratory infection are low in exclusively breastfed babies. Breast milk contains the carbohydrates, proteins and essential fatty acids needed for brain development. But often mothers feel the milk is not sufficient and go for artificial formula food as advertisements make them attractive,” she says. In the late 1980s a State-run hospital in Mumbai set up a milk bank through which milk donated by mothers was provided to sick or abandoned babies. Neonatologists say the concept is an advanced form of wet nursing practised across rural India. The Mumbai hospital encourages mothers to donate their milk that is pasteurised and stored in deep freeze, thus killing harmful virus and bacteria. A sample of the stored milk is tested for viral, bacterial and other infections before it is given to a baby. The bank can store milk for nearly six months.

Till date, though the bank has provided nourishment to scores of babies more such endeavours were shelved following the HIV/AIDS scare. A recent study in the United States has come up with solutions to address this fear.

Earlier this month, the Kanchi Kamakoti CHILDS Trust Hospital announced its proposals to start a milk bank. “Neonatologists from the hospital will visit the Mumbai hospital to study the infrastructure,” said Rahul Yadav, head of Neonatology at the hospital.

“The [Mumbai] hospital has been successful in preventing formula feeding. At the neonatal intensive care unit, every month almost 200 babies benefit from the banked milk.” Dr. Yadav says studies in Mumbai had shown that exclusive breastfeeding goes down as the child grows. Though the trend is found in all metropolises, “Chennai fares worse than Mumbai,” he points out.

Though government maternity hospitals have refrigerated milk from biological mothers and fed them to babies admitted in the paediatric wing, the government has not considered opening milk banks yet, doctors say.

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