A milk bank to aid the community
Verena Bolton, a neonatal nurse and national co-ordinator of Netcare Ncelisa human milk banks, shares the importance of the partnership with Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital.
Described as a groundbreaking public/private healthcare collaboration between Netcare and Rahima Moosa Mother & Child Hospital, the pair have launched a Netcare Ncelisa human milk bank at the hospital. This is described as vital new initiative that’ll provide a lifeline for newborn babies in intensive care, ensuring they receive the donated breast milk they depend on so heavily.
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“Breast milk is crucial for giving compromised newborns the healthiest possible start in life and is urgently needed in public sector neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Mothers often live far away and for various reasons may be unable to provide their babies with breastmilk,” said Verena Bolton, a neonatal nurse and national co-ordinator of Netcare Ncelisa human milk banks.
She said their partnership to provide the hospital NICU with donated breast milk from their milk banks began in 2019 and is now being advanced further as a turnkey project with the implementation of an on-site milk bank at the hospital. “This will enable the management of the full process on site, from donor recruitment and testing, to breastmilk collection, processing, pasteurising, and storage, significantly enhancing the efficiencies of the project and its impact,” she adds.
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Bolton explained that the project has benefited 628 babies at the hospital to date, and this new on-site development promises to help countless more. The nurse said that Netcare will provide the necessary equipment and disposables, and the bank will be managed by a Netcare trained milk handler, and will be audited by Netcare, keeping it in line with the auditing processes of their established milk banks.
“This collaboration with Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital is a testament to Netcare’s ongoing commitment to supporting babies and their families in the public sector, and we aim to see many more positive outcomes from collaborations such as this,” said Bolton.
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