Breastfeeding mothers with surplus milk can now donate to the Human Milk Bank at the University of ghana Medical Centre (UgMC) in Accra.
Five months after its official launch, the facility, located at the Women and Children’s Block of the medical centre, is now receiving, processing and storing donated breast milk for distribution to vulnerable newborns, particularly preterm babies.
In an interview with The Mirror in Accra last Friday, the Head of the Paediatric Department, Dr Beatrice Nyann, said after the launch, the team spent months perfecting the system and processes involved.
She explained that although equipment for the bank — including pasteurisers, deep freezers, air purification systems and breast pumps — was ready at the time of launch, the hospital spent the months that followed building additional structures to ensure safe and efficient service delivery.
These included the development of a digital tracking system to monitor donors and processing stages, a dedicated laboratory channel to fast-track results, as well as consent frameworks for both donors and recipients.
Dr Nyann said earlier this month, the bank received its first donor milk which is currently going through the process before it is donated.
“We began operations on November 3 and have already received our first donations. The milk has been stored, tested and pasteurised, but we want to be absolutely certain that everything is safe before giving it to a baby. We have opened up for donors and are still receiving milk — the only thing left is to give out our first batch once the final checks are cleared.”
“We wanted to get it right because this is the first facility of its kind in Ghana, so we studied similar models in countries like India and the United States and adapted them to fit our context,” she added.
Screening processes
She said every donor is screened for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV — the key viral infections that can be transmitted through
breast milk.
“After pasteurisation, we also run bacterial cultures on the milk to make sure there are no microorganisms present,” she
added.
She said in the first six months, the hospital will cover the cost of screening and other related tests but after that, beneficiaries will have to take up the processing cost similar to the processes involved in getting blood from the blood bank.
Writer’s email: efiaamoakoa2@gmail.com
