7-Jun-2017: National Human Milk Bank and Lactation Counselling Centre Inaugurated.

‘Vatsalya – Maatri Amrit Kosh’, a National Human Milk Bank and Lactation Counselling Centre is inaugurated at the Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC). 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.

“Vatsalya – Maatri Amrit Kosh” opened at Lady Hardinge Medical College in collaboration with the Norwegian government, Oslo University and  Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) Newborn Project, is a national human milk bank and lactation counseling centre that 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 project will not only act as a dedicated centre to support breastfeeding and improve infant survival but also act as the teaching, training and demonstration site for other milk banks to be established under the Ministry Of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

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

The decline in maternal and child mortality in India is much faster than the global average rate of decline and the frontline workers need appreciation for their dedicated work. We are poised to enhance Universal Health Coverage in the country and are conscious of quality issues. Several efforts are underway through NHM to improve affordability, quality and access to healthcare services.