The regional breast milk bank will benefit more than one hundred hospitalized newborns

Donations from 104 women allow 26 infants to have already been fed with donated milk

Last March, the first Breast Milk Bank in the Region of Murcia was launched at the Virgen de la Arrixaca Hospital and since that date a total of 104 women have participated as milk donors.

Specifically, these donations have made it possible to dispense 117 liters of pasteurized milk to 26 neonates admitted to the neonatal ICU of this center. More than 100 newborns are expected to benefit from this pioneering program throughout the year.

Breast milk is the best food for infants and, in the case of neonates with any pathology, such as premature infants weighing less than 1,500 grams, its benefits, in addition to promoting their development, include the prevention and reduction of necrotizing enterocolitis , a complication that premature babies can suffer and that affects the intestine.

In the milk bank, this food is processed, analyzed, stored and distributed to nourish hospitalized newborns who, for different reasons, do not have enough milk from their mother and are especially vulnerable, such as those born with low weight.

Currently there are 15 banks throughout Spain and the one in the Region is number 16. This initiative represents another step in the strategic line of the Ministry of Health to promote and support breastfeeding.

The women who want to participate are selected after a clinical interview and an analysis (serological and toxic) and, if everything is correct, they are accepted as donors. They express their milk at home and freeze it. A transport company collects the milk from the donors’ homes anywhere in the Region and transfers it to the Arrixaca milk bank, where it is analyzed to determine its nutritional properties and a culture is made. If all the characteristics are adequate, it is pasteurized and, after another cultivation, it is frozen. This already pasteurized milk is administered under medical prescription.

Women who want to donate milk

Women interested in donating can call the regional bank at 968 369 031, where they will be summoned for an interview. They can go, also by appointment, to the municipal health service in the Jardín de la Pólvora in Murcia. In a second phase, it is planned to expand the number of donor recruitment points to different municipalities in the Region.

The Santa Lucía Hospital in Cartagena began this initiative in 2015 as a Donor Service Center and dispensing point for pasteurized milk thanks to an agreement with the Virgen de las Nieves hospital in Granada.

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