THE city’s first breast milk bank at the Bao’an District Maternal and Children’s Hospital has collected nearly 1.06 million milliliters of breast milk from donors since it was established in December 2015, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

A new mother in Futian District, surnamed Zhang, brought her refrigerated breast milk to the milk bank last week as her supply of milk was more than enough for her 4-month-old baby.

Zhang is one of many new mothers in the city who have donated their spare breast milk to the milk bank over the past year and a half. A mother in Bao’an District, surnamed Xu, has been donating her breast milk for 10 months since her baby was born, setting the milk bank’s record for milk volume provided by a single donor at 70,000 milliliters.

The bank delivers around 3,500 to 4,000 milliliters of breast milk each day, which benefits 20 to 25 premature or critically ill babies. The milk bank ensures the safety of the donated milk by running blood tests on donors, pasteurizing the collected milk and discarding the breast milk from donors who didn’t pass the tests immediately after the results come in.

The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, with solids gradually being introduced around this age when signs of readiness are shown. Breastfeeding offers health benefits to the mother and child even after infancy. These benefits include a 73-percent decreased risk of sudden infant death syndrome, increased intelligence and cold and flu resistance.

There are over 3,000 premature babies born in Bao’an District each year, and the preemies staying at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) usually fail to get enough breast milk from their mothers. However, the situation has been changing since the establishment of the milk bank, which supplies donated milk to the premature and critically ill babies for free at the hospital.

Mothers who want to make a donation can go to the milk bank for an on-site collection or collect their breast milk at home and bring the milk to the hospital. They can also make an appointment for door-to-door collection. The milk bank accepts fresh milk that has been collected within 24 hours or refrigerated milk collected within three months.

According to the milk bank, donors should be new mothers whose babies are younger than 10 months old and they should provide health certificates issued by top-class grade-A hospitals or have blood tests done at the milk bank before making a donation.

(Zhang Yang)