Pumwani Hospital gets Sh66m breast milk bank

Pumwani Maternity Hospital will now provide breast milk to vulnerable newborns who cannot get their mother's breast milk.

This is after  the first breast milk  Bank was launched at the facility on Friday making it the first to have such a bank in the region.

A similar bank is found in South Africa.

This will see milk collected from lactating mothers who have more milk to spare.

The mothers will be screened before they are allowed to express their milk, which will then be processed, pasteurised and stored.

Speaking during the launch, Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko said the bank will greatly compliment efforts by his administration to end cases of maternal deaths at hospital.

The milk bank is now among over 600 human milk banks globally.

Pumwani Hospital has a capacity of 150 baby cots, with a daily occupancy of 60 infants.

Sonko said out of the average 60 infants per day, 10 to 12 infant are in need of donor human milk because they are  born prematurely or have low birth weight.

Other reasons he said the infants may have medical conditions, or have no access to their mother’s milk because of illness or death of their mothers at childbirth.

The facility has installed a pasteuriser that can hold  9.4 million litres, two fridges and four freezers with a  240-litre capacity.

The milk is heated at 60.5 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes then suddenly cooled. It is packaged and stored, usable for six months.

Sonko urged health workers at the hospital to adhere to guidelines developed by the Ministry of Health for protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding and access of donor human milk to vulnerable infants.

“Health experts at Pumwani Hospital are now required to ensure that the milk is well screened and free from viruses that can be transmitted to the infants,” he said.

Sonko further said his administration targets to set up a Newborn Intensive Care Unit at the hospital as well as have the facility accredited as a 'Baby Friendly'. 

The initiative is partly funded by the British government.

Department for International Development advisor to Kenya, Tessa Mattholie, expressed optimism that the initiative put an  end to  cases of newborn deaths. 

“This is the second human milk bank in Africa and the UK government is proud to be part of the initiative. I want to acknowledge mothers who have started donating human milk to the bank, this is a great move that will help save babies especially those born prematurely and those abandoned by their mothers,” she said.

Nairobi Health CEC Mohammed Dagane said the Nairobi County Government will extend the initiative to other county hospitals to boost efforts to end child mortality rates.