Good news in the dark days of the COVID pandemic in Vietnam – two pasteurisers needed to accelerate the opening of the Human Milk Bank at Vietnam National Children’s Hospital are on the way from the UK. Huge thanks to all our amazing donors and the team at MT Scientific and Medicare Colgate (UK) for pulling out all the stops.
Breastmilk provides the optimal nutrition, it is the single most cost-effective preventative intervention to reduce newborn infants deaths. Breastfeeding protects against infectious diseases, due to the direct transfer of antibodies from Mum.
Many COVID infected mothers become sick very quickly and cannot breastfeed or express milk for their babies, there are more preterm/sick babies/orphans being cared for in the neonatal. When mothers’ milk is not available, donor breast milk is the option recommended by World Health Organisation.
For babies born under the shadow of the pandemic, threatened by strained health systems and disruptions in services, breastmilk is the best medicine, but at this time of crisis donor milk is a drop of life.