The breastmilk bank at Pumwani Maternity Hospital is one of very few across sub-Saharan Africa, and is especially helpful for premature babies, of which roughly 134,000 are born each year in Kenya.
The milk bank in Nairobi, established in 2019 with the support of British aid money and PATH, an NGO, allows babies like Grace-Ella to benefit from the generosity of others.
“Before I accepted, I was a bit sceptical because it gave me some feeling of guilt like I could not give my daughter my own breastmilk.”
'Good to help'
“When we feed them human milk we find they are growing faster compared to a baby who is getting formula,“ said Muthoni Ogola, the doctor heading the programme.
A key advantage of breastmilk is the antibodies passed to the infant, said Pumwani nurse Hannah Wangeci Maina.
“We usually have many mothers lining up to receive the expressed breastmilk,“ she said.
Wanjiru was given counselling and tests for diseases including HIV and hepatitis before sitting to pump.
“It feels good to help... It sort of feels like a massage,“ Wanjiru told AFP with a shy grin.
For the hospital team, it is frustrating that they only have enough equipment to provide milk to hospitalised children on the ward, as well as occasional donations to two other hospitals.
“Some of this equipment can only be found in Europe (or) the US, so it becomes a problem for us to procure,“ Kiteshuo told AFP.
“That becomes one of the challenges that we experience right now -- that we cannot help the mothers outside the facility,“ said Kiteshuo.
AFP
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