Milk bank eyed in Cebu City

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Council is planning to implement a milk bank program in the city to solve the malnutrition and other health problems concerning the newborn babies.

The council requested the Cebu City Nutrition Council of the Philippines-Cebu City chapter to coordinate with the City Health Department, Cebu City Medical Center, Department of Social Welfare and Services, and the Cebu City Women and Family Affairs Commission to conduct a study on the implementation of a milk bank program.

The resolution sponsored by Councilor Gerardo Carillo was approved by the City Council last week.

For more than ten years now, the Philippine Children’s Medical Center has spearheaded a milk bank program at their neonatal intensive care unit along with the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital, and Dr. Jose Fabella Hospital in Metro Manila.

“(In the PCMC), Mothers are either too sick or too far to feed the newborn babies but babies are able to get the right nutrients from the breast milk of other mothers,” Carillo said.

He said that before implementing the program it is best to start a feasibility study and how to better apply the best practices showed by the PCMC neonatal intensive care unit.

The City Council tasked the nutrition council to conduct the study and asked the council members to submit within three months a report after the initial outcome of the study with the help of the other agencies.

Carillo said that breast milk is the best choice to feed premature and ailing babies.

“When there is not enough mother’s milk available for newborn babies, donor breast milk is the best alternative,” he said.

He said that milk banking is being practiced worldwide.

“It is important to have an advocacy towards milk banking to be able to solve malnutrition and other health problems concerning neonatal or newborn babies,” the councilor said.

Dr. Lilibeth Espinosa, a pediatrician at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, is happy with the development, adding that breast milk is very important for the nutrition of newborn babies.

Espinosa said that VSMMC has now a pasteurizer and a freezer for the milk bank. However, it is not functional yet since the area needs to be properly sterilized and they still need other equipment.  (FREEMAN)