Nepal opens its first human milk bank for premature, at-risk babies

With an aim to provide premature and other at-risk babies access to the immense benefits of breast milk when they need it most, Nepal’s President Bidya Devi Bhandari on August 19 at a maternity and women’s hospital in the Himalayan nation. Inaugurated the first human milk bank of Kathmandu.

Read also: Kerala’s first human milk bank to open on February 5

The Manav Milk Bank of Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital – Amrit Kosh has facilities to collect, pasteurize, test and store safe donor human milk from lactating mothers and then provide it to needy babies, officials said. Is.

The center has been set up in partnership between the Government of Nepal, the European Union and UNICEF.

Professor Dr Amir Babu Shrestha, Director, Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital, said, “Premature, low birth weight and small gestational age babies are weak in terms of survival and cognitive development and are usually under-fed due to their medical conditions. I have a problem.”

According to a press release issued by UNICEF Nepal, the milk bank is an important step towards ensuring a baby friendly healthcare system and provides access to the vast benefits of breast milk to premature, low birth weight and other at-risk infants. is when they need it. majority of.

An estimated 81,000 premature babies are born every year in middle-income countries like Nepal. Compared to the facts of dying in the first month of their lives, premature and underweight babies face an even greater risk.

According to Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (NMICS) 2019, the neonatal mortality rate is 16. Also, the infant mortality rate is 25 and the under-five mortality rate is 28 per 1,000 live births.

According to NMICS 2019, only 42 per cent of children below the age of 2 years are breastfed within an hour of birth and 62 per cent of children under six months of age are exclusively breastfed in Nepal.

With PTI input.

first article