Following the footsteps of Mumbai, Surat, Pune and Kolkata, Udaipur is all set to have its first Mother’s Milk Bank at the RNT Udaipur Medical College, Udaipur.

The decision of establishing the milk bank has come while keeping in mind the high infant mortality rate in the state. At present, the newly-born infants are kept in ICU by giving formula or powdered milk.

The milk donor’s medical check up will be conducted first in the state-run woman hospital before storing the milk for newly-born children. The donor’s milk can be stored for three months at -20 °C.

According to Dr Ketan Bhadarwa, who is a child care specialist at Yashoda Human Milk Bank in Surat, “Nearly 10-40% infants, in different communities in India, don’t get mother’s milk due to different reasons. Malnutrition and premature death of children can be avoided with the help of mother’s milk.”. He further added, “Out of the 100 children who die premature deaths, 16 children can be saved with the help of mother’s milk.”

About 15.41 lakh children died in India in 2010 under the age of five mainly due to under-nourishment. What’s worse, more females died than their male counterparts. While India in 2010 saw over 7.43 lakh male children aged 0-4 years die, the number for female children stood at 8.06 lakh.

source: Divya Bhaskar