A superhero in pink scrubs

The paper talks to Phumzile Masemola, a milk handler at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital who loves that her work helps save newborn’s lives.

Phumizile Masemola a Milk Handler at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital.

Meet Phumizile Masemola, her smile and caring disposition are what mothers to newborn babies are met with at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital.

Masemola is a milk bank handler at the hospital’s recently opened Netcare Ncelisa human milk bank, a first of its kind in the public sector. What she loves about the environment she works in is that she gets to help save the lives of the most vulnerable, especially the lives of premature babies who she says breastmilk is vital for.

Read more: Rahima Moosa celebrates milk bank

Everyday is filled with her educating mothers on the importance of breastmilk and how they can be milk donors. She finds it so interesting that everyday she gets to share information with a mother who had little knowledge on how she could help a fellow mother struggling with feeding her baby. “Seven years ago all I knew was that I could help my biological sister feed her child. I did not know about the process of pasteurizing milk. After getting educated on it, it took me as a surprise.”

On occasion, while making rounds to maternity wards, she comes across mothers talking among themselves, with struggling mothers encouraging others to be milk donors. “When a struggling mother eventually starts to produce milk, she comes to the milk bank and donates willingly.”

Also read: International Nurses Day at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital

For Masemola, knowing that her work impacts the live of newborns makes her feel like a superhero. Her hope is that more milk banks like these are found in more government hospitals.

A day-in-the-life for Masemola sees her doing some light office work before conducting her rounds to the maternity wards, to see who is need of donor breastmilk. Following this her day then either consists of her recruiting new mothers to be milk donors, washing milk bottles, packing sterile packs, or scheduling.

To mothers, she encourages breastfeeding, saying that, yes, one can feed their baby formula, however, it lacks what breastmilk has.

Within her career she hopes to one day have a managerial role, and to one day have her own department to look after, while travelling to different hospitals visiting other milk banks within the country.

Related article: A milk bank to aid the community