By Adam Hewitt-Smith | Truetee, Born on the Edge
Babies need milk to survive and thrive. This is especially true for those babies who are born too soon. Sadly, there are times when babies have lost their mothers or when a mother is unable to produce enough milk to support her tiny newborn. In Uganda there is no affordable or sustainable alternative to human breastmilk. Providing a safe and accessible source of nutrition to give these vulnerable babies the best chance of survival is critical to the excellent newborn care our team provides in eastern Uganda.
I am sure we all know that people donate blood to save lives but did you also know that mothers also donate their breastmilk? Human milk banks are common across many well resourced countries around the world but in Africa are very scarce. It is not easy to set up a sustainable and safe service that enables a reliable supply of milk for the babies that need it. But, despite the challenges, that is what we have done in eastern Uganda. The first human milk bank in a government hospital that provides 100% free milk to the smallest and sickest babies in the region.
The 19th of May was World Human Milk Donation Day and to celebrate we formally launched the Mbale Human Milk Bank. It was an exciting day of advocacy with the Ministry of Health, local leadership, supporting partners, hospital staff and mothers who had both donated and had babies receiving donor human milk sharing their stories, experience and committment to supporting this life saving service.
Since starting, the milk bank at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital has had 109 donor mothers who have all willingly provided their milk to save the lives of others. Thank you to everyone who is involved in this amazing work.
It is important to remember that your support through GlobalGiving makes this possible. The money you donate supports training, sustainable equipment, capacity development and salaries of critical staff like our breastfeeding specialist without whom none of this would be possible. Please continue to give generously.
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