Kenya, second sub-Saharan African country after South Africa, to establish a human milk bank

Kenya’s first human milk bank has opened at Pumwani Maternity Hospital.

“Pumwani Maternity Hospital was selected as the site for the pilot human milk bank due to the number of vulnerable neonates in need” (Mike Mbuvi, governor of Nairobi City County). Nairobi’s neonatal deaths (deaths during the first 28 days of life), is the highest in the country, with 38 deaths per every 1,000 live births.

The bank, is meant to provide lifesaving breast milk to babies who are “born premature, underweight or severely malnourished, orphaned, and those who otherwise have no access to their mother’s milk.” Without a milk bank, such babies previously had to be “fed on formula, which is associated with increased risk of diarrhoea, feeding intolerance, necrosis of the bowel, sepsis and other infections.”

“The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that a preterm baby should receive milk from a human milk bank should its mother not be able to breastfeed.” It is in this context that it issued a global call to scale up the establishment of human milk banks.

The opening of this first human milk bank at Pumwani Maternity Hospital, is to pilot this innovation in the region, to improve the effectiveness of breastfeeding, and to reduce morbidity and mortality among pre-term and low birth weight infants.”

For now, distribution is restricted to Pumwani Maternity Hospital. Later on, it will be extend to three other hospitals in Nairobi – Mama Lucy Hospital, Kenyatta National Referral Hospital and Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital, using the same infrastructure at Pumwani.

Kenya becomes the only other African country, after South Africa (which has more than 20 banks) to have human breast milk banks. It is well set to become a leader in human milk banking for the region.

Sources: nation.co.ke & xinhuanet.com