Nepal’s first-ever human milk financial institution for at-risk infants opens at Kathmandu

Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on Friday inaugurated the Himalayan nation’s first-ever human milk financial institution at a maternity and girls’s hospital right here to provide untimely and different at-risk infants entry to the huge advantages of breast milk once they want it probably the most.

‘Amrit Kosh,’ the human milk financial institution on the Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital has the services to gather, pasteurise, check, and retailer protected donor human milk from lactating moms after which present it to infants in want, officers mentioned.

The centre has been established in partnership between the Government of Nepal, the European Union and UNICEF.

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“Premature, low birthweight and small for gestational age babies are vulnerable in terms of survival and cognitive development and usually have feeding problems due to their medical conditions,” said Prof. Dr. Amir Babu Shrestha, Director, Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital.

The milk bank is an important step towards ensuring baby-friendly health systems and gives premature, low birthweight, and other at-risk infants access to the vast benefits of breast milk when they need it the most, according to a press release issued by UNICEF Nepal.

Every year, around 15 million premature babies are born around the globe. In lower-middle-income countries like Nepal, an estimated 81,000 premature babies are born.

Infants face the highest risk of dying in their first month of life while premature and low birth-weight babies face even a greater risk.

According to the Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (NMICS) 2019, the neonatal mortality rate (number of deaths per 1,000 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 1,000 live births.

“Human breast milk contains the best source of nutrition and ensures survival and healthy growth of babies. It bolsters brain development and has lifelong benefits for the baby and the mother,” remarked Dr Bibek Kumar Lal, Director, Family Welfare Division, Ministry of Health and Population.

Human breast milk comprises antibodies which can’t be present in another sources. Exclusive breast feeding has the potential to forestall 13 per cent of the demise of kids aged under-five globally every year, in keeping with specialists.

Early initiation of breast feeding inside the first hour of beginning along with unique breast feeding can lower down 22 per cent of all new child deaths worldwide.

In Nepal, solely 42 per cent of kids below 2 years of age are breast-fed inside one hour of beginning and 62 per cent of kids below six months are completely breast-fed, in keeping with NMICS 2019.

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