Short Note: Vatsalya-Maatri Amrit Kosh

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched a National Human Milk Bank and Lactation Counselling Centre called ‘Vatsalya – Maatri Amrit Kosh’ at the Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC).

Features

• “Vatsalya – Maatri Amrit Kosh” has been opened in collaboration with the Norwegian government, Oslo University and Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI).
• The centre will collect, pasteurize, test and safely store milk donated by lactating mothers.
• The centre will make the collected milk available for infants in need.
• The centre will protect, promote and support breastfeeding by providing lactation support to mothers through dedicated lactation counsellors.
• The centre will act as a demonstration site for other milk banks to be established under the Ministry Of Health and Family Welfare.

Significance

• The centre will function as the largest public sector human milk bank and lactation counselling centre available in North India.
• All the infants in and around Delhi will have access to life saving human milk.

Need

Human milk has been found to increase the survival rate of those neonates whose mothers were not able to produce enough milk. The human milk is also known to increase immunity in children. The breastfeeding rates are found to be low in India. It has been found that early initiation of breastfeeding is only 40%. To increase the awareness regarding breastfeeding, the central government has launched Mothers Absolute Affection (MAA).