A volunteer team who are in charge of collecting breast milk for Viet Nam’s first human milk bank based at the Da Nang Maternity and Paediatrics Hospital recently made their debut.

The volunteers who are in charge of collecting human milk for Viet Nam’s first human milk bank based at the Da Nang Maternity and Paediatrics Hospital

The team consists of 20 Youth Union members who are employees at the hospital. Using specialised kits, they are responsible for collecting milk from those who wish to share their breast milk with others, and then transferring it to the hospital-based milk bank.

The collected milk is pasteurised and tested for diseases before being kept in cold storage for future use by the hospital-born children who do not have access to breast milk due for reasons of premature birth, abandonment, sickness or being placed in isolation with their mothers suffering infectious diseases.

According to doctor Nguyen Son, the Deputy Director of the hospital, in the coming time, heed will be paid to upgrading the milk bank and conducting biological milk collections at district-level medical centres and hospitals based in neighbouring localities.

Opened in 2017 at the Da Nang Maternity and Paediatrics Hospital, this human milk bank is the first of its kind in Viet Nam. Funded by the Margaret A Cargill and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundations, the milk bank aims to promote breastfeeding in Viet Nam by providing lactation support for Vietnamese mothers who cannot breastfeed their babies due to their babies having health problems.

By DAC MANH- Translated by ANH THU