Quezon City Government's Breast Milk Bank Opens

Photo Source: hamptonroads.com

A human breast milk bank was inaugurated today at the Quezon City General Hospital to support infants in need of breast milk.

Led by Mayor Herbert Bautista and Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, with the support of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), Quezon City has set up a local government-run breast milk bank as mandated by a 2012 ordinance authored by District 5 Councilor Julienne Alyson Rae Madella.

Similar to a blood bank, infants without access to their own mother’s milk will be provided an alternate feeding method through the milk bank. The facility is especially looking to cater to infants born with prematurity, malabsorptions, feeding intolerance, immunologic deficiencies, congenital anomalies and postoperative surgical conditions.

Based on the ordinance, the milk bank will collect, screen, process, store and distribute donated human milk to the pediatrics department of all city-owned hospitals.

The milk bank will be a nonprofit facility that will charge a minimal fee to be used for up keeping. However, Belmonte stated that “inability to pay the fee shall not be a reason for nonavailment of the milk for patients in need.”

Related: 4 Tips on Pumping Breastmilk Effectively at the Workplace

Other government-run hospitals with milk banks include the Makati Human Milk Bank, the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital and the Philippine General Hospital.


Sources:
March 22, 2015. "QC gov’t opening 1st local milk bank". inquirer.net
March 22, 2015. "Quezon City to open breast milk bank". philstar.com