‘Vatsalya – Maatri Amrit Kosh’,  National human milk bank and Lactation counselling centre has been inaugurated by C K Mishra, Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) at the Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) today.

Speaking on the occasion, Mishra said, “This would be the largest human milk bank and lactation counselling centre available under the public sector in North India. It is envisaged that with this donor human milk bank, all newborns in and around Delhi will have access to life saving human milk regardless of the circumstances of their birth.”

“When we know the potential of mother’s milk for a child, breastfeeding rates are low in India. He informed the participants that the early initiation of breastfeeding is only 40%, even when the institutional delivery has increased to 78.9%. In view of this, we launched Mothers Absolute Affection (MAA) programme to create awareness regarding breastfeeding as being the most cost-effective way of enhancing the child’s immunity,” he added

Addressing the gathering, Nils Ragnar Kamsvag, Ambassador of Norway to India said, “Human milk increases survival rate for those neonates whose mother cannot produce enough milk. I am proud in being a partner with Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) in this endeavour and I am confident that this will provide guidance, inspiration and guidelines for more such milk banks for helping sick newborn babies.”

This national human milk bank and lactation counseling centre will collect pasteurize, test and safely store milk that has been donated by lactating mothers and make it available for infants in need. In addition, this facility will protect, promote and support breastfeeding of their own healthy mothers by providing lactation support to mothers through dedicated lactation counsellors.

This initiative is established in collaboration with the Norwegian government, Oslo University and Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI).