By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 10, 2022: The Odisha government has set up its first-ever Human Milk Bank in the state. The aim of Bank is to fulfill the nutritional needs of many newborns, who are being deprived of their mother’s milk due to several reasons.

This Human Breast Milk Bank has been inaugurated at the Pediatrics Department of the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar, thus making it the one amongst the 34 other such banks in the country.

“The mother’s milk is an elixir for a newborn and our aim is to meet the need of mother’s milk to feed infants who are unable to get breast milk of their mother in the initial few weeks due to various reasons like illness or death of the mother, premature delivery, etc,” Dr L D Sahu said.

According to Sahu, a campaign will also be launched to encourage lactating mothers for donating their breast milk to such infants. “Any lactating mother can voluntarily donate her excess milk in this facility. At present, we have the storage capacity of 200 litres and it can be stored for six months after sterilizing through scientific processes,” he added.

The Milk Banks are a part of a nationwide movement led by the National Health Mission to initiate Lactation Management Centres at secondary and tertiary levels of public health services.