CHENNAI : Amrita Samant shoots pictures of newborns for a living. But these days she’s hoping to use her lens to encourage new mothers everywhere to help babies that aren’t their own. So far, her campaign on Instagram showcases six pictures of everyday moms breastfeeding including one at a railway station. Launched during World Breastfeeding Week to raise awareness on ‘human donor milk’ (and hopefully lower the stigma of breastfeeding in public places along the way), the captions include quick nuggets of information like ‘1 ounce of breastmilk can feed a premature baby for a day’ and contact information of a doctor within a hospital with a milk bank in Chennai — CHILDS Trust Hospital in Nungambakkam. Other milk banks in the city are Vijaya Hospital in Vadapalani, Institute of Child Health and Children’s Hospital (ICH)and Stanley Medical College and Hospital in Royapuram.
This personal project has been in the making since February 2018. And the reason it’s taken a while is possibly because, as Amrita recalls, “There were some challenges to get people to warm up to the idea of breastfeeding in front of a camera.” What was reassuring, however, was that the more information she gave moms about this cause, the more the number grew of people eager to participate.
Of course, given approval sought from spouses, parents and elders to be a part of this campaign before the photo shoot began, there were several moms who wanted to participate but had to pull back because of reluctance from their family. But this is all par for the course, for the 32-year-old, whose campaign has steadily been gaining momentum as is evident from the truckload of supportive comments. This is apart from mothers unknown to her, sending her direct messages sharing their own personal stories of premature deliveries, and fears faced in NICU.
Amrita’s passion for the project will continue for the next six months to a year. After shooting in Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, her next stop will be Singapore in September. “I will be shooting in different scenarios — on a crowded street, in a car, situations you’re forced to feed because your child is hungry,” she says, emphasising that the photographs will surely be tasteful and modest.
“What’s important to me is to drive home the message about human donor milk, I don’t want the focus of what I am doing to be lost because of an image that triggers controversy,” she says. Remember the recent photograph of a celebrity on a magazine cover that had tongues wagging for days? Another reason, she will be consciously choosing locations outdoors she says, is to release the stigma we have been raised with of breastfeeding out in the open. “I want to make breastfeeding as normal as eating dinner at your dining table,” she tells us.
Donor milk process
Once ready for use, Dr Shobana breaks down the stages of purification:
● Before donor milk is taken, the donor will be screened with blood tests to detect HIV 0, 1 & 2, HTLV 1 & 2, hepatitis B & C, and syphilis
● Once these tests come back negative, the donor milk is given for culture testing
● Milk is then heated to 62.5 °C for 30 minutes. This pasteurisation process kills bacteria that could be harmful to fragile infants, while still retaining its nutritional value
● This is followed by a post-pasteurisation culture test
● Finally, the donor milk is ready for dispatch
Well, that sounds like a mammoth task. For now, baby steps.
(To donate to a milk bank, contact Dr Vanathi H of CHILDS Trust Hospital at 9962252104.)