In a significant collaboration with the private sector, an on-site milk bank has opened at Johannesburg’s Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital as part of an initiative to ensure public sector neonatal intensive care units (NICU) benefit from donated breast milk for newborns.
TimesLIVE reports that it is to be administered by the Netcare Ncelisa programme, which has five national milk banks and many collection points at hospitals that have so far ensured more than 4 000 babies have been fed since its establishment in 2017.
“Breast milk is crucial for giving compromised newborns the healthiest possible start in life and is urgently needed in public sector neonatal intensive care units. Mothers often live far away and for different reasons may be unable to provide their babies with breast milk,” said Verena Bolton, a neonatal nurse and national co-ordinator of Netcare Ncelisa human milk banks.
The Rahima Moosa hospital NICU has been assisted with donated breast milk since 2019, but the opening of an on-site milk bank in collaboration with Netcare is a first in the state sector.
Dietician Qudsiyah Kassim, who manages newborn nutrition in the hospital’s NICU, said premature and low birthweight babies have unique dietary needs because of their immature digestive systems, which affects their ability to digest anything other than breast milk.
“Babies in our NICU whose digestive systems may not be fully developed and who have complications are at risk for additional health challenges if they are fed with formula at this stage, further compromising them. Breast milk helps to prevent infections and other complications while giving them the nutrients they need.”
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