First Mother´s Milk Bank Open in the Dominican Republic

First Mother´s Milk Bank Open in the Dominican Republic
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 7/28/2011

The Mother´s Milk Bank will receive donations from supportive mothers and provide it to breastfeeding women around the country who are in need of it.

Minister of Public Health, Bautista Rojas, praised the effort and commitment on the part of First Lady Margarita Cedeño de Fernández for publicizing the importance of breastfeeding and its lifelong health benefits as in builds up the child´s immune system.

First Lady, Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, said her office chose the Nuestra Señora Maternity Hospital of Altagracia as the site for the first Mother´s Milk Bank in the Dominican Republic due to the large numbers of births that take place there on a daily basis. It is thought that this project will contribute to the reduction of infant mortality among newborns. Mother´s milk is essential for the health and recovery of infants as it helps build immunities from illnesses and fills a full range of nutritional needs.

Mrs. Margarita Cedeño de Fernández said that in the future the project will extend to other maternity and pediatric hospitals but for the moment, other hospitals around the country will serve as milk collection sites while the pasteurization and distribution process take place at Nuestra Señora Maternity Hospital.

She said they will undertake an awareness campaign to inform people about how to get lactating mothers involved and how to let mothers in need know that the milk is available. In general, the Office of the First Lady intends to emphasize the importance of mother´s milk for the health of newborn babies.

Minister of Public Health, Bautista Rojas, praised the effort and commitment on the part of First Lady Margarita Cedeño de Fernández for publicizing the importance of breastfeeding and its lifelong health benefits as in builds up the child´s immune system.

The impact of this program, added the Health Minister, will have long-term health benefits for the entire country as this program will ultimately translate into achievements and lasting changes that will prove positive for the Dominican Republic in terms of women and children’s health as well as the economy and general health of the entire society.

Director of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia Maternity Hospital, Juan Cid Troncoso, is overjoyed at the opening of the Mother’s Milk Bank, saying that it fulfills an accreditation the hospital has been seeking for 25 years: to be declared the “Friend of Mothers and Friend of Children´s Hospital.” Mr. Troncoso thanked the government of Brazil and the Dominican First Lady for numerous contributions and support of the country’s health system in general and specifically for the Maternity Hospital.

From the very beginning, Cedeño de Fernández has promoted breastfeeding as a primary way of feeding babies up to at least the age of two years. She has developed various initiatives in support of this important issue, which include radio and television promotional ads as well as remodeling the maternal lactating area of the Dr. Robert Reid Cabral Children´s Hospital in 2006.

In November of 2008, during an official visit to Brazil with President Leonel Fernández, the First Lady toured the installations of a Mother’s Milk Bank and gathered information on how such a project functions. After which time, she began her efforts to set up the same system in the Dominican Republic.

The Office of the First Lady (DPD in Spanish) installed a lactating mother’s area in the Jardín Infantil Progresando, which is used by mothers who are taking courses at the Fadidrio Training Center. Here the children receive healthy and nutritious food and the mother-child bond is strengthened as the babies are being immunized, naturally, against a host of diseases that affect humans throughout their lives.

This center will supply mother’s milk to babies whose mothers are having difficulty or who are unable to express their own milk, thus providing these babies with the essential benefits of mother’s milk which helps protect children against respiratory diseases, digestive problems, skin conditions, allergies and much more. Mother’s milk has also been found to decrease the risk of obesity later in life.

The DPD also offers training to mothers from families involved in the Progresando program where they are instructed on the importance of breastfeeding their babies until the age of two. Mothers can listen to lectures in the different health centers around the country where they raise awareness and provide motivation. These programs receive support from the Third Scientific Forum on Breastfeeding 2010 which was part of World Mother’s Milk Week.

Details about the Milk Bank

The Mother’s Milk Bank was built in an area of 102.9 square meters. It has a waiting room area, a room area where mothers donating milk can wash their hands, a dressing room, a breast milk collection area, a laboratory and pasteurization area, a cleaning area and a space for handling and storing the donated breast milk.

This center will supply mother’s milk to babies whose mothers are having difficulty or who are unable to express their own milk, thus providing these babies with the essential benefits of mother’s milk which helps protect children against respiratory diseases, digestive problems, skin conditions, allergies and much more. Mother’s milk has also been found to decrease the risk of obesity later in life.

Those who participated in building the center include the Ministry of Public Health, the Brazilian Agency for Cooperation, the Brazilian government, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Infant and Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Latin American Center for Pre-Natal Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights (CLAP/SMR in Spanish) and the Dominican Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development.

Personnel Training

Various Dominican specialists were trained outside the country in the operation and management of these centers, their structure and use of equipment. They were also trained in the microbiological safety of mother’s milk, processing and pasteurization, storage and distribution, among other important areas necessary to the running of the Milk Bank.

This center is part of the Mother’s Milk Bank Network (MMB Network), whose mission is to promote the health of women and children through the integration and building of societies with federal institutions, private initiatives and civil society as a whole.

The installation of the Milk Bank is part of the Technical Cooperation Project with the Dominican Republic whose goal is to implement a Mother’s Milk Bank throughout the country through the transfer of technical knowledge and training of professionals to establish the bases which allow for the creation of a network capable of strengthening the actions of the programs that provide maternal and infant healthcare.