‘State has maximum mother milk banks in Asia’
Rajasthan has the largest network of human milk banks in Asia, says the health department.
Health secretary and National Health Mission chief Naveen Jain said based on the information by path.org, an international nonprofit global health organisation based at Seattle, India has the largest mothers’ milk bank in Asia and Rajasthan has the maximum number of mothers’ milk banks in India.
“Rajasthan alone has 18 mothers’ milk banks run by the state government, which is more than China that has 17 mother milk banks. Apart from these 18 banks, there are two more mothers’ milk banks in Jaipur – at Sawai Man Singh Medical College run by Norway Government and one in private Mahatma Gandhi Medical College — making Rajasthan a state in entire Asia to have the largest human milk bank network,” he said.
Devendra Agarwal, adviser to the state health department for the mothers’ milk bank project, said Rajasthan has human milk banks at Beawar (Ajmer), Alwar, Banswara, Baran, Barmer, Bhilwara, Bharatpur, Bundi, Chittorgarh, Churu, Dholpur, Jalore, Karauli, Rajsamand, Sawai Madhopur, Sirohi, Tonk and at government’s Rabindra Nath Tagore Medical College in Udaipur.
“Centre government looking into the success of mothers’ milk bank in Rajasthan has approved approximately Rs 4 crore to set up mothers’ milk bank at five district hospitals at Jaisalmer, Jhunjhunu, Nagaur, Pratapgarh and Sriganganagar,” he said, adding that by the end of this financial year, all 33 districts of Rajasthan will have the mothers’ milk banks. The project to set up the mothers’ milk banks was started in Rajasthan following chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s budget announcement in 2015-16. Since then, 35,682 lactating mothers have donated 77.40 lakh ml milk. Two lakh units of mothers’ milk (one unit is 30ml) have benefitted 22,400 newborns admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and in the community.
Rajasthan first state to release State Breastfeeding Policy
Rajasthan is the first state in the country to release Breastfeeding Policy. Health minister Kali Charan Saraf released the policy on August 7 to achieve the set health standards under Poshan Abhiyan-2022 to exclusively breastfeed the children up to six months.
This policy will prove to be a guideline for family, community and all workers associated with health services to feed mother’s milk to the newborn within one hour of birth and exclusive breastfeeding for six months. This policy has been jointly developed by both National Health Mission and woman and child development department with technical support from the UNICEF.
Additional chief secretary, health, Veenu Gupta said the department is counselling the community, pregnant women at health centres and lactating mothers and running Mothers’ Absolute Affection (MAA) programme to help mothers in breastfeeding. MAA programme was launched in August 2016 to bring undiluted focus on promotion of breastfeeding.
She said Amrit Kaksh has been set up at the institutions having high delivery load, where mothers can feed their newborns. This policy will certainly help build favourable atmosphere in getting newborns their right, that is, mother’s milk, she added.
Mother’s milk provides protection to newborn from serious diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia and helps in complete growth of baby. Feeding milk is also beneficial to the mother’s health.
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