COIMBATORE: Four women from the city, who gave birth recently and are still nursing their babies, donated 16 litres of breast milk to the milk bank of the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital on Sunday.
It was an initiative of Coimbatore Parenting Network’s Uyirthuzhi project. “While we have been collecting the first breast milk, nicknamed liquid gold, for the GH regularly, it was the largest quantity we donated in a single shot,” said M Aishwarya, a mother and a trustee of the network.
The network, which motivates mothers to donate excess breast milk, has been active since 2016. “We motivate young mothers to collect, store and donate excess breast milk, rather than throwing it away or letting it be till it leads to engorgement,” Aishwarya said. “We assure them that donating excess milk will not deprive their babies of milk when they are hungry. The more you empty your breasts, the more milk you’ll make.”
Milk donated to the bank is screened for infections, pasteurized and frozen before given to babies on a priority basis. Donated breast milk benefits extremely premature babies weighing between 650gm and 750gm, whose mothers’ secretion have not begun and are too weak to digest formula. The initiative is also a boon to abandoned babies, who are often underweight and sick.
As extremely small premature babies consume hardly 10ml to 30ml milk a day, the bank can feed 100 premature babies for five days.
S Shreepriya, 24, who donated milk, said she had never felt prouder and happier for her and her one-month old child. “I realized that this is something that no one else can buy or recreate. It’s worth the extra pumping sessions,” she added.