Pumwani Maternity Hospital’s milk bank a big hit with new mothers
Kenya’s first breast milk bank at Pumwani Maternity Hospital is doing well just weeks of its launch.
According to the facility’s administrator Geoffrey Mosiria, the hospital is now receiving about 10 litres of human milk daily from donor mothers.
Each day close to 20 mothers visit the facility to donate milk.
‘‘We are doing well, we collect those milk from donors, screen them, test HIV and hepatitis disease, we pasteurize them and store before feeding newborns at the nursery,” Mosiria said.
FIRST BENEFICIARIES
According to Mosiria, the first beneficiaries of the breast milk are mothers within the hospital who cannot produce enough milk for their newborns.
‘‘We are also giving the human milk we collect to children homes that have requested but we have to ascertain before we give them the milk,” he said.
In a month’s time, Pumwani will be launching the outpatient services to increase the milk capacity.
SAFETY STANDARDS
Pumwani has installed a pasteurizer 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.
A technical team will always be on standby to run the machines once in a while to ensure high safety standards.