Eureka! Institutional Repository

WHO recommends that children should start breastfeeding within the first hour of birth and be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life - that is, no other foods or fluids, including water, should be provided in order for them to have optimal growth, development and health. Other than being the best source of nutrition for the infant, breast milk offers significant and ongoing health benefits for the infant and mother, including proper development of the infant's immune system and programming of endocrine and metabolic functions. The composition of human breast milk is ideal for each infant, including premature newborns. This is because premature newborns are born before a crucial window of rapid nutrient transfer to the placenta and fetal development that occurs in the third trimester of gestation. Breast milk, as concluded, is very important for preterm newborns, who differ from full-term newborns in terms of nutritional needs, growth rates, immunoprotective potential and increased morbidity due to immaturity. A Human Breast Milk Bank collects, stores, processes and distributes donor breast milk on a voluntary basis as a non-profit organization. More specifically, it is an organised department with a fully institutionalised method of breast milk distribution and is responsible for attracting and raising awareness among nursing mothers to donate breast milk, undertaking the collection and processing of the milk, its microbiological analysis, its storage and finally its administration to newborns as necessary to ensure maximum benefit from its use. Following an initial interview and milk testing, donor mothers donate the excess breast milk either for their own infants hospitalized within the NICU or selflessly for other infants in the unit. Donor breast milk is used as medication for the susceptible NICU infants after it has been tested and pasteurized.