ગુજરાતી
English
6 milk banks of Gujarat which are saving the lives of many children
Ahmedabad, October 31, 2025
Mother Milk Bank for newborns has started in Ahmedabad Civil Hospital from August 2025. There are milk banks in Bhavnagar, Surat, Vadodara, Valsad and Gandhinagar in the state. Bhavnagar Government Medical College, Jamnagar Guru Govind Singh Government Civil Hospital and PDU Civil Hospital in Rajkot. 3 additional milk banks have been approved.
By 2024-25, 20 thousand children in the state will be able to get milk. 22 thousand mothers have already given milk. Usually 5 thousand mothers give 5 thousand liters of milk in a year.
Birth-death of children
About 13 lakh children are born in Gujarat every year. The 2021 Civil Registration System Report showed that 70,000 newborns died in Gujarat in the last five years. On an average, one thousand infants are dying every month. In 2021, 11,815 infants died in Gujarat. The highest number of infant deaths at 2,608 was recorded in Ahmedabad, followed by 1,336 in Surat, 1,185 in Rajkot and 1,073 in Vadodara. Infant mortality rate in rural areas is 90 percent lower than in cities.
Death of newborns
The people of Gujarat are paying the price of the directionless and corrupt health department policies of the BJP government. In just 91 days, 156 mothers and 2447 newborns died.
According to the data of the Health Department in Gujarat, from April 1 to June 30, 2023, 2132 cases of pregnant women suffering from serious illness like anemia were reported. 27,138 children were born with low weight. 1,20,328 malnourished children were born in three months. There are 24,121 severely malnourished children with “extremely low weight-very low weight” in the state. According to the data of the Health Management Application, the highest number of maternal deaths during delivery in the last 91 days have been recorded in Ahmedabad Corporation (15), Kutch (11), Banaskantha and Dahod (10), Rajkot Corporation (9), Vadodara (7), Bharuch (3) and Narmada (1).
Dahod district has recorded the highest number of deaths of newborns at 215. After this, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has recorded 199 deaths, Banaskantha has recorded 166 deaths, Kutch has recorded 165 deaths, Mehsana has recorded 142 deaths, Anand has recorded 113 deaths, Sabarkantha has recorded 105 deaths, Vadodara has recorded 73 deaths, Vadodara Municipal Corporation has recorded 30 deaths, Surat Municipal Corporation has recorded 46 deaths, Bharuch has recorded 69 deaths and Ahmedabad has recorded 64 deaths. Out of 100 children born in SMIMER, 31 were malnourished, which is 4% of the deaths of newborns.
In Gujarat, on an average, 30,000 children die at the time of birth out of 12 lakh children. In five years, 7,15,515 children were malnourished. In Dahod, the number of malnourished children in one year was 14,191. In Narmada, it was 12,673.
If many of these children had received breast milk on time, they could have been saved.
Milk through pump
An electric breast pump is used to extract breast milk. This does not cause any physical harm or pain. Any healthy and well-nourished mother can donate her milk. By donating milk, the mother’s child does not suffer from lack of milk. Donating milk also relieves mothers from problems like lack of milk, crop or vaccination.
5 thousand liters of milk per year
In the year 2024-25, 5537 mothers donated 5,036 liters of milk in the state. The bank has donated 2092 liters of milk to 7829 children. Many children have survived due to milk donation by mothers in Gujarat. Maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate have improved. This has been possible thanks to the ASHA worker sisters.
Milk testing
Bacterial testing is done for the purity of milk. After all the medical reports of the mothers come negative, their milk is taken. After pasteurizing the milk and cooling it immediately, the milk sample is sent to the microbiology department for the report. It can be safely stored in a deep-fridge at a temperature of 18 to 20 degrees for six months. Usually, milk from three mothers is mixed in a 125 ml bottle. This stored nectar lasts for six months.
Importance
Mother’s milk is the best diet for a newborn baby. It provides nutrients, antibodies and protective properties. The Mother Milk Bank will work to ensure that breast milk is available to newborns who do not get enough milk, who suffer from serious illness, or are born prematurely and are in critical condition. It provides breast milk to children who are malnourished, who have low birth weight (800 grams to 1 kilogram) and cannot breastfeed. Breastfeeding is provided to children who are not able to breastfeed or who do not have a mother.
Breastfeeding is like nectar for the child. It strengthens the child’s immunity and helps in physical and mental development. However, many mothers are unable to breastfeed their child due to serious illness, lack of milk or other reasons. Such children were earlier given powdered milk, which is nutritionally inadequate.
It is useful for babies who are unable to breastfeed. They can be discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit early. A human milk bank, breast milk bank or lactarium is a service that collects, analyzes, processes, pasteurizes and distributes a certain amount of human milk donated by breastfeeding mothers.
Pasteurized donor
Pasteurized donor breast milk is an effective diet. When the biological mother is unable to breastfeed, the first option is to use human milk obtained from other sources. This milk is given free of cost to needy babies.
This will help reduce infant mortality. Milk banks will play an important role in saving children’s lives. Leaving aside the practice of giving mother’s milk at birth, mother’s milk should be given for the development of children. So that children can develop properly and the child remains healthy.
Ahmedabad
This milk bank, which will start in Ahmedabad Civil Hospital in August 2025, has cloud-based software for registration. Each beneficiary will be given a unique identity card. The bank has eight modern milk extraction stations for mothers. Where the collected milk is preserved with automatic pasteurizers. There are 2 vertical and 1 horizontal deep freezer for milk storage, with a total storage capacity of 45 liters.
The milk bank has been constructed with a donation of US$ 80,000. The donor is the Alumni Association of B.J. Medical College. Pandya Family Foundation along with Dr. Gaurang Pandya, a student of the 1974 batch, did the important work for this donation.
The Ahmedabad Mother Milk Bank has a 24×7 team of 10 staff nurses, 1 lab technician and 2 pediatricians. Apart from this, clean bathrooms, RO water, sterilization, waiting room and music system are also available.
Saurashtra
The Rotary Club of Bhavnagar started Saurashtra’s first Mother Milk Bank in April 2024. Janakben Bhavibhai Shah, a resident of Bhavnagar city, donated mother’s milk to the Mother Milk Bank for the first time. Janakben
Shah said, “This milk will be useful for other children. I will be blessed with it.” This is the second time Janakben has donated breast milk in Saurashtra.
This bank has been running in Gandhinagar since 2021. In a year, 946
mothers donate 300 liters of milk and feed 994 children. Fully automated equipment from India’s best company.
Gujarat’s SSG Hospital, Vadodara is the first hospital in India to receive a certificate of high quality standards.
History
The first human milk bank in India was set up in Mumbai in 1989. It started 80 years after the world’s first bank. Udaipur’s RND Bank, which started in 2012, is the first bank in North India.
It started in Gujarat in 2021. Gujarat is still far behind.
Anchal Mother Milk Bank of Chittagong has been the best bank in the country since 2017. It has received seven awards in 7 years.
In the world, Escherich opened the first human milk bank in 1909. The following year, another milk bank was opened at the Boston Floating Hospital, which was the first milk bank in the United States.
World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated from 1 to 7 August for the health of children around the world. Awareness is raised about exclusive breastfeeding for six months.
The demand and use of human milk banks is increasing. The International Milk Banking Initiative (IMBI) was founded in 2005 at the International HMBANA Congress. In which 33 countries are associated.
The history of breast milk donation says that the first record of the rules for the sharing of breast milk is found in the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (1800 BC).
Until the 11th century, European culture considered breastfeeding indecent. But in India, women continued to breastfeed someone else’s child.
Theodor Escherich of the University of Vienna studied different nutritional sources and their effects on newborns from 1902 to 1911.
Donor breast milk is the best alternative to breast milk. The practice of milk banking declined further with the HIV epidemic. Strict testing requirements increased the cost of running milk banks, causing some to close their doors.
