Breast Milk Bank Launched in Nigeria

The CEO and Founder of The Milk Booster Breastfeeding Company; Zinsu Favour has urged new born mothers to feed babies with breast milk in order to make enormous progress in child survival and reduce neonatal mortality rate.

Favour disclosed this at the official launch of first milk bank in Lagos.

She stated that the decision to influence new born families is based on the decline in the survival rate that greater focus on newborns urgently needed.

Also, a Medical Doctor, Chinny Obinwanne, while speaking, noted that it is cheaper to invest in breast feeding than the sickness that would arise from a lack of it, adding that yearly, Nigeria looses billions of Naira to this.

Obinwanne stated that breastmilk and baby formula are not equivalent in nutrition value, adding that World Health Organisation (WHO), has listed donor breast milk as the second best nutrient for a child before baby formula.

She further stated that one of the motivation behind this was mothers within her community constantly seeking breast milk for premature babies.

She recounted an experience where a mother who had triplets died and the babies needed breast milk but before they could go through the processes to get the milk across, some of the babies died.

The medical practitioner stated that the process involves screening the mother of communicable diseases like HIV, Hepatitis B and C, Syphilis and HTLV. “If she is negative on all five tests, then the breast milk is collected, processed and pasteurized. It would equally go through another testing before it would be acceptable for consumption safety and then dispatched to babies.

Obinwanne said it would cost over N20,000 to screen a mother, which costs will be covered by the organization, noting that every woman who needs it can get it.