Kenya to store Human Milk to Reduce Newborn Mortality

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Pumwani is getting Kenya's first breast milk bank, which will be only the second of its kind on the continent. The other one is in South Africa.

The bank is a joint initiative by Kenya's Ministry of Health and PATH, a U.S.-based nonprofit health organization. It will open in September for donations and offer free breast milk by prescription for babies who cannot get it from their mothers.


​'Next best option'

Dr. Elizabeth Kimani Murage, head of maternal and child well-being at the African Population and Health Research Center, is behind the project.

"The World Health Organization recommends that if the mother's own breast milk is not available for the baby for any reason, the best next option would be the donor milk," she said. "So the recommendation is to make donor milk available to such vulnerable babies."

The milk bank aims to help orphaned and malnourished babies get the nutrients essential to healthy development.

Murage said mother's milk has an enormous impact on child survival, especially during the first month of life.