COIMBATORE: No mother would want to experience the pain of being separated from her child, especially right after they give birth. However, due to the unusual situation that prevails, women from containment zones who delivered babies at Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) are separated from their newborns until they test negative for COVID-19.
This measure has been undertaken to ensure that the newborns are not infected, even as the World Health Organization (WHO) permits new mothers infected with COVID-19 to breastfeed their babies.
The babies are fed milk from the human milk bank at the hospital. The milk bank has proven to be a haven for low-birth-weight babies since its inception in 2015.
Sources said, around 190 low-birth-weight babies in March and 123 babies in April (until 27) have benefited from the milk bank.
CMCH Neonatologist P Senthil Kumar said, “An asymptomatic mother hailing from a containment zone could later develop flu-like symptoms. Thus, we want to make sure that the mothers test negative for COVID-19 before breastfeeding their newborns. If or when the health condition of the mother does not allow her to breastfeed the baby, he or she is given milk from the milk bank.”
Between January and March, about 407 mothers have donated breast milk to the hospital, through which nearly 1,344 babies benefitted, said higher officials from the Department of Pediatrics (Newborn unit).
Another official said the breast milk, donated by volunteers, undergoes bacterial examination multiple times before it is pasteurised at the milk bank.
However, sources claim it has become difficult to procure milk from new mothers from Coimbatore and Tirupur districts due to the lockdown as vehicle movement has come to a standstill.
The usual practice is that lactating mothers store breast milk in containers or storage packs and earlier, they would drop the packets at collection points, from where they would be brought to CMCH.
Amirtham Breast Milk Donation Drive Founder Roopa Selvanayaki (28) said there are around 600 mothers in Coimbatore, Tirupur and Erode who are donating breast milk to the milk bank at CMCH.
Roopa said, “As we cannot commute during the lockdown, I coordinated with the mothers from various localities. Then, Neonatologist Senthil picked up the containers from the mothers.”
Besides, Roopa said milk secretion in lactating mothers will not reduce if they donate.
A WhatsApp group comprising of lactating mothers has been formed in order to constantly motivate them to donate breast milk, she added.