A head start for the newborn

Twenty-nine-year-old Raksha Jain gave birth to her first child, a son, at the district hospital in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, on June 17 last year. But she could not lactate after her caesarean delivery and so was initially unable to feed her newborn baby.

A counsellor from the Aanchal Mother Milk Bank (AAMB) attached to the hospital informed her about mother’s breast milk being available with them. Knowing fully well the importance of mother’s milk for the new-born, Raksha lost no time in giving her consent.

The infant was given breast milk from the bank for the first three days.

On the fourth day, Raksha was taken to this facility to help her pump out the milk to start feeding the baby. To her amazement, she had much more milk than was required for the baby.

Overwhelmed by the fact that her baby could get mother’s milk from the bank when she could not lactate, Raksha made a commitment to herself that she too would donate her breast milk every day. She did that almost continuously for seven months and even now does so whenever she can make it to the hospital as she has a young child to attend to.

According to Bhagwati Bishnoi, Manager, Mother Milk Bank, AMMB, Raksha has donated more than 50 litres of milk so far, the highest by any single mother. A physiotherapist by profession, Raksha had to even hire a cab, paying ₹700 every single day, for the first month, to go to AMMB to donate her milk while she stayed at her parents’ place where she had gone after her delivery.

“It gave me immense satisfaction that orphaned or abandoned babies were being fed with my milk,” says Raksha.

While she got full support from her parents and in-laws, Raksha says what pained her most was the reluctance of some educated mothers to give or take milk because of caste, religion or other considerations.

“That was exactly the problem we faced initially, not sure of the caste and the background, women were unwilling to take milk from the bank,” says Bishnoi.

However, things have changed since then, with the spread of awareness among the mothers on the importance of breast feeding. Over 680 litres of mother’s milk have been donated since the facility opened in February 2017. Over 3,200 women, registered as donors, donated milk at more than 5,700 sittings.

The Bank has a staff of six nurses, including Bhagwati. Each one has been assigned a specific job. This includes spreading awareness on breast milk and the need for donating it both in the wards and OPDs where mothers come, helping young mothers who have initial problems with lactating and training babies who are not able to suck milk properly. A room has been specially decked up for 10 mothers to donate milk at one sitting.

Safety tests in place

Bhagwati says all the mandatory tests, including blood tests, are done before donation of milk by mothers. The milk is refrigerated under minus 20 degrees Celsius for six months, with 24x7 power. Mothers can take the milk in small bottles in an ice box or in thermocol boxes and refrigerate it at home.

Khushboo Parasar does not have enough milk of her own, so she has come to the bank. “I am happy that for mothers like me such an arrangement exists.”

Raksha is keen to motivate women or start a voluntary organisation to advocate the need for donating mother’s milk, crucial for the health of children in the initial year or two. Who else could be a better ambassador for breast feeding and donating breast milk than this young mother who has donated the maximum amount of breast milk to feed infants in need?

The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi

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