Shri Shivaji Education Society Amravati's
Dr. Panjabrao Alias Bhausaheb Deshmukh Memorial Medical College, Amravati.
Shivaji Nagar, Morshi Road, Amravati – 444 603
Human Milk bank / Comprehensive Lactation Management Centre is a service which collects, screens, processes and dispenses by prescription, the human milk, donated by nursing mothers who are not biologically related to the recipient infant.
1) To provide human milk to all babies who are in need because of various reasons.
2) For promoting mothers for milk donation, protection and support of breast feeding and Infant Milk and Substitution Act (IMS 1992) and encouraging new research in human milk donation technology.
Challenge for the medical fraternity is to reduce infant mortality rate. We have established central India’s first human milk bank with the aim to provide mother milk safely to all the new born who have no access to mother milk because of varied reasons.
Premature baby who cannotfeed at mothers’ breast because of any reason. In this critical moment, human milk Bank stepped in as a life saver, offering pasteurized, natural Human milk filled with vital nutrients and disease fighting antibodies.
Considering poor educational background of mother with other social, communal prejudices and misconceptions, it became essential to have thorough counselling of mothers to obtain their consent for milk donation. After obtaining consent, expressed breast milk is collected for human milk bank with strict hand hygiene protocol. Expressed breast milk is stored in containers at human milk bank after pasteurization according to protocols. To avoid contamination, proper cold chain is maintained. To ensure quality of human milk we ask for culture of every container. Human milk is disbursed to needy babies only after ensuring that it is free from contamination. Decontamination of human milk is done regularly to ensure milk free from contamination. We observe breast feeding week for reaching prospective donor and priming them for milk donation.In addition to this our human milk bank is also involved in educating staff.
1) Till now we have received 6,00,000+ ml ofhuman milk donation from 8000 mothers
2) Out of above 5, 50,000 ml of milk was to 7000+ needy babies till date.
3) We have significant number of mothers who have donated breast milk on more than one occasion, which is evidence of milk bank success.
1) Biggest problem is to counsel and convince the mother for milk donation.
2) From milk collection to final disbursement multiple gadgets are involved, so single gadget failure can break the chain at any critical moment.
3) Repeated training and updating of human resource involved in the milk bank is required at regular intervals.
Impact of human milk bank project:
1) We have first milk bank in central India. Our project has created awareness amongst the healthcare workers, Obstetriciansand paediatricians along withdonor mothers and their families.
2) Being first human milk bank in central India we are training centre for starting similar projects at other institutes.
Objective: Mental Health is one of the neglected aspects of health sector from students point of view as well as the society. Most of the mental illnesses remain hidden either due to lack of awareness or due to social stigma associated with them.
Context: For implementation of this program in long run the planning about methodology & assessment was done. For the program, a team of specialized doctors having the knowledge of the subject and the experience to deal with it, the resources like manpower, material and place of activitywere identified. To evaluate the results, feedback and analysis were planned.
Practice: The students in 2nd and 3rd year of MBBS are called in batches in the Psychiatry OPD for training and sensitization program. During the training program the students are explained about promotion of positive Mental Health, role of Nutrition, Sleep hygiene, Time management, Yoga & Meditation, Stress management, Problem solving skills. Later, they are given the practice questionnaire about the same. Then they were given Role Play to test and improvise communication skills and understanding of the subject.
For Community based activities periodic lectures, street plays and exhibition, educational seminars, group discussions, problem solving and counselling of the Alcohol and other Drug addicts were carried out. On World Mental Health Day some new innovative programs like Public Symposium, Mental Health Rally and Poster competition for students were organised.
Afterwards, feedback forms and questionnaire about the take home messages were distributed to the recipients. The response sheets were processed for analysis of the activity.
Evidence of success: The programs followed by the practice tests given to students showed improvement in the responses like the score improved from 3.45 to 7.39 for 2018 batch while the figures for 2019 batch showed improvement from 3.48 to 7.70.
After the community targeted activities, feedback indicated change of attitudes towards the mental health related problems. People became more vocal and open. The GHQ(General Health Quiestionnaire) score was 20.5 before the activity with only 10.5% patients seeking help from the mental health professional. After the activity the GHQ score was increased to 30.6 indicative of increase in awareness. The tendency to seek help in such problems also developed. The daily average OPD was 67.16 in 2021 which increased to 80.03 in 2022 and 83.32 in 2023.
Problems encountered & Solutions: There were some hurdles concerning Manpower, Money, Time& Place. But fortunately the institute had enough resources to overcome the hurdles.
The institute has well equipped Department of Psychiatry which took care of the Human Resources issue. The HOD with the help of other faculties designed the activities. The residentsalongwith the Paramedical staff including Clinical Psychologist and Social Worker carried out the activities. The Students section department and the Hospital administration provided the recipients.