Thanjavur/Tiruchy: The ‘world breast feeding week’ celebrations this year has acquired a new significance in Tamil Nadu, with the Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa launching lactation-fecilitating and milk-feeding rest rooms for mothers at bus stations, and ‘breast milk banks’ with pasteurized facility in all major government hospitals across the State.
The launch of the new scheme in Thanjavur and Tiruchirappalli districts on Monday renewed hopes for the betterment of malnourished children. Take the case of Thanjavur district. Even if mothers do not have enough milk to breastfeed their children, or if kids’ mothers are sick, or if their mothers die during delivery, they can still have breast milk as a ‘breast milk bank’ was inaugurated at Rajah Mirasudhar government hospital (RMH) at Thanjavur on Monday.
With the inauguration of the bank by Ms J. Jayalalithaa through video conferencing from Chennai, RMH has become one among the seven medical college hospitals in the state to have a ‘breast milk bank’.
Collection of breast milk from voluntary donors (mothers) started on Monday after the inauguration. According to M. Singaravelu, Dean, Thanjavur medical college, five donors have given 100 ml of milk for storing in the bank to start with.
The bank has two breast milk pumps, each costing Rs 2.5 lakh to collect milk from mothers. The collected milk will be kept in a refrigerator at two to three degrees centigrade. Later it will be pasteurized at 60 degrees centigrade. Then the sample milk will be sent for culture test, namely, for HIV infection test, etc.
The milk will then be stored in a deep freezer at minus 20 degrees centigrade and will not be used till the culture test results confirm negative for any infection. Breast milk can be stored in the deep freezer for six months and when it is to be used it will be thawed using a thawing machine (heated in water) and used.
“The breast milk bank is a new concept and motivation will make it a success. A quantity of 500 mls of breast milk can be stored in the bank at any point of time,” Singaravelu said.
Mothers’ milk feeding halls
For lactating working mothers and those who frequently travel, ‘Mother milk feeding halls’ have been opened at bus stands in the district so that they may feed their babies. The Chief Minister inaugurated 20 such halls across the district. The halls will have drinking water, seating and washing facilities so that mothers can leisurely breastfeed their children.
M. Rangasamy, Thanjavur MLA, N. Subbaiyan, Thanjavur district Collector, Ms Savithiri Gopal, Mayor of Thanjavur City Corporation were among those at the function to launch both these schemes in Thanjavur.
In Tiruchi
A similar ‘breast milk bank’ was launched by the Chief Minister through videoconference at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial government hospital in Tiruchi. The Tiruchy mayor also inaugurated a ‘milk feeding hall’ for lactating and working mothers at the central bus station here.
Launching the schemes at the Government medical college, Tiruvarur, its dean, Dr AL. Meenakshi Sundaram, underscored that a new born baby should be breastfed at least for six months as the baby does not need any other food till then. Incidences of breast and cervical cancers are also the least in breast-feeding mothers, he pointed out. Inaugurating the programme, the Tiruvarur district collector, M. Mathivanan said that breastfeeding strengthens the bonding between mother and child. The weeklong celebrations began on Aug 1.
