Call for Breast Milk Banks at Gov’t Health Facilities

Experts attending an event to mark World Breastfeeding Week in Kampala have urged the government to set up human milk banks at public hospitals, noting that babies are unnecessarily being initiated on milk supplements too early, affecting their survival and health outcomes later in life.

Laura Ahumuza, a Senior Nutritionist at the Ministry of Health, said at the meeting on Tuesday that while Uganda generally has good indicators with 81 per cent of the babies being initiated on breast milk in the first hour after birth, vulnerable babies with complications are often fed on supplements through nasogastric tubes.

Citing Kawempe National Referral Hospital, Ahumuza said premature babies and neonates admitted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are often fed on formula whenever they can’t access milk from their mothers.

Calling for prioritising, having a breast milk bank at the hospital, the nutritionist said the facility had the highest rate of low birth weight and neonatal mortality at 53 per cent last year, followed by Mulago Women and Neonatal and Moroto hospitals. She said some of these deaths are partly due to feeding, and yet donated breast milk can be an option for survival.

However, donated milk is catching on in Uganda, with private hospitals such as Nsambya, Nakasero and Mengo having facilities to store and offer donated human milk. The only public facility with a milk bank is Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, but even there, the programme is funded and completely run privately by donors.

Dr Charles Olaro, the Director General of Health Services, said that they have it in plan to set up a human milk bank at Kawempe and that they have already acquired two fridges for this purpose. While he couldn’t confirm when this bank will be operationalised, Olaro said that when equipping is completed, they would like to see more women embracing donation to cut down on the challenges associated with access to breastfeeding.

But, according to Agnes Kirabo, the Executive Director of an NGO, Food Rights Alliance, there are quick fixes that can be done even before such banks are made accessible to many women.

She, for instance, says that it’s quite concerning that health experts say that women should exclusively breastfeed their babies for six months and yet the Employment Act only provides for three months of maternity leave.

For her, women face a triple burden of gender, biological and professional roles that cannot allow them to fully breastfeed their babies as recommended.

“These mothers will not generate breast milk when they are malnourished themselves; you can’t give what you don’t have. Mothers don’t eat. Workplaces don’t give their employees food. What quality of breast milk will women who don’t eat well and don’t get enough rest provide?” she wondered.