Vadodara: Parul Sevashram Hospital Installs Human Milk Bank

Parul Sevashram Hospital (PSH), a 750-bed private multispecialty hospital in Vadodara, is the second in the city to install a human milk bank in the newly upgraded NICU complex of the hospital.

The facility was inaugurated by Dr. Minaxi Chauhan, Vadodara's chief district health officer, along with Dr. Narayan Gaonkar, maternal health specialist of UNICEF, Gandhinagar.

The need for a Human Milk Bank has emerged because of the huge gap in the demand and supply of mothers' milk, given that many cannot breastfeed their preterm babies for various medical reasons. The milk bank is like a godsend opportunity as it addresses this lacuna to a significant extent.

Also read: Karnataka: SDM Hospital Gets Human Milk Bank

The statistics are rather grim even at the national level. According to official data, premature births have been increasing every year. India reports 24 million births each year, of which 3.5 million are preterm births. Nearly 0.76 million babies die in the immediate newborn period. India shares the highest global burden of neonatal births and mortality.

Human milk is a source of anti-infective factors that are proven to reduce infections, feed intolerance, and necrotizing enterocolitis, which are the major causes of mortality in preterm neonates.

Breast milk is always the preferred feed for any neonate either from their own mothers and if the mother's own milk is not available, then donor human milk is the next best choice, especially for preterm babies. Therefore, it is the best option for a premature baby when a mother's milk is inaccessible.

Speaking with TOI, Medical Director Dr. Geetika Patel said, "We are the first self-finance medical college and eighth in Gujarat to have this facility. The addition of a milk bank facility will serve as a boon to the newborns thereby achieving our goal of 'health for all’."

"The process of milk collection, screening, processing, and dispensing is ensured and the departments of pediatrics, obstetrics, and gynecology will regularly do awareness campaigns for mothers to donate the milk," she added.

Parul Sevashram Hospital is a facility spread over 4.2 lakhs square feet with a total of 750 beds designed spaciously and with well-ventilated, modern architecture giving a positive energy & treating thousands of patients each year.

Also read: Human Milk Bank Inaugurated At Nashik Civil Hospital