Praise-worthy initiative for establishing first human milk bank in Croatia announced
On the occasion of 27th International Breastfeeding Week, Ministry of Health and UNICEF Office for Croatia have held a press conference where they presented initiative for establishing the first human milk bank in Croatia, reports Zagrebancija.com
Croatia might get its first breast milk bank, which would provide even better care to premature infants and sick newborns. In Croatia, 2000 babies are born prematurely, 400 of which require intensive care. Due to the immaturity of their organism, these newborns are in great danger of various infections and increased mortality.
“Mother’s milk plays a very important role in the nutrition of premature infants. Not only because of its nutritional value, but also because of its protective role. These children, when fed with mother’s milk or donated human milk, are less prone to severe infections,” explains Anita Pavičić Bošnjak, national coordinator of breastfeeding programme at intensive neonatal treatment and care units.
Today, there are 214 human milk banks in Europe, which function as non-profit organizations, where milk is donated exclusively by volunteers.
“Human milk banks do not buy or sell milk. Banks are most often part of the hospital, they act as a separate unit, but are closely related to maternity hospitals and units of neonatal intensive care. That is how they best meet their purpose, which is distributing and donating milk to those in need,” explains Dinka Barić, the head of the working group for establishing the first human milk bank.
The opening of the Croatian Milk Bank is planned for KBC Zagreb in 2018 as part of the Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Health 2018-2020. The UNICEF office in Croatia will provide technical and financial support for the establishment of the human milk bank, and will also organize a humanitarian race under the name of “Milky Way”, which will take place on September 9 and 10 in Zagreb.
