Nepal's first human milk bank opens at Paropakar Maternity Hospital

By Mahima Devkota, Kathmandu, Aug 19: The first human milk bank has been established in Nepal at the Paropakar Maternity and Women's Hospital, which was inaugurated by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Friday. 

In the inaugurating program, President Bhandari expressed her belief that the establishment of the human milk bank will help in reducing the child mortality rate as well as generating awareness about its importance. "I believe that the hospital administration will actively work in ensuring access and quality service to service receivers by utilizing the technological sound equipment of science while making hospital technology friendly," she added.  

According to the hospital, the milk bank is an important step towards ensuring baby-friendly health systems and giving premature, low birth weight, and other at-risk babies vast benefits of breastmilk when they need it the most.  The human breast milk,' established at the hospital has the facility to safely collect, process, test, and store donated milk from pregnant mothers and provide it to babies in need. 

Prof Dr Amir Babu Shrestha, director of the Paropakar Maternity and Women's Hospital, premature and low birth weight babies and small for gestational age babies are at greater risk of survival and cognitive development and usually have feeding problems due to their medical conditions. 

"In such cases, direct breastfeeding is not possible for such infants and the best option for them is to feed them expressed milk or if possible, to give them breastmilk." he said, "Many parents opt to give bottled milk if breastfeeding is not possible or inadequate, however, bottled milk is not good for children's health. Therefore, the human milk bank will provide breastmilk to such babies."

He added that out of the 26, 605 women admitted to the hospital in the fiscal year 2078/79, 24,369 pregnant women were delivered, babies. Hospital witnesses about 64 babies in a day. "37.07 per cent of babies, that is, 9,118 babies had operation (C-section) delivery in the last fiscal year in the hospital. 

According to WHO around 5 million babies are prematurely born worldwide every year. In low-middle-income countries like Nepal, about 81,000 babies are born prematurely annually. Infants are at higher risk of death in their first months of life, while premature and low birth weight infants are at even greater risk.

According to the Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (NMICS) 2019, the neonatal mortality rate (number of deaths per 1000 live births during the first 28 days of life) in Nepal is 16. Similarly, the infant mortality rate (number of deaths per 1000 live births, which are under 1 year of age) is 25 and the under-five mortality rate is 28 per 1000 live births.

Similarly, the infant mortality rate (number of deaths per 1000 live births, which are under 1 year of age) is 25 and the under-five mortality rate is 28 per 1000 live births.

Dr Bibek Kumar Lal, Director of the Family Welfare Division of the Department of Health Services, said that human breast milk contains the best source of nutrition and ensures the survival and healthy growth of babies. It bolsters brain development and has lifelong benefits for the baby and the mother,”