BAGUIO CITY—The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance establishing a human milk bank in the city to support children in need of breast milk.
Authored by Councilor Leandro B. Yangot Jr., the ordinance states it shall be the policy of the local government to promote and advance the health of women, as well as their children, by providing for their basic needs. Breastfeeding is the natural way of providing infants with the nutrients for healthy growth and development, it added.
A human milk bank section under the City Health Services Office Pediatric Section will collect, screen, process, store and distribute donated human milk. It should also implement guidelines issued by hospital officials together with the City Health Services Officer with the donation, collection, screening, processing, storing and distribution of donated breast milk.
The health office would also coordinate with breastfeeding support groups and barangay health workers within the city to spread awareness and encourage mothers to donate breast milk.
Yangot said the milk bank should operate as a non-profit, but a minimal processing fee may be charged to cover the screening fee, processing and administrative cost. However, inability to pay the said fees should not be a reason to get milk for patients in need, the councilor added.
Trained and dedicated health personnel in human milk banking and location management, consultants and physicians would make up the section. One of them would be the human milk bank section head, and the others would be the coordinator or administrator, lactating specialist or counsellor nurse, midwife, and medical technologist.
The milk bank would also draft the necessary rules and regulations for the qualifications, disqualifications and benefits of a milk donor. It would maintain, review and regularly update a manual of procedures for the rules and guidelines related to the donation, collection, screening, processing, storing and distribution of donated breast milk.
Yangot added in the distribution of donated breast milk,
Priority recipients of the breast milk are service or private patients who are pre-term, post-surgical or critically-ill newborns, and for infants in disaster and calamity-stricken areas, Yangot added.
In the event of a low supply of donated milk, the human milk bank consultant-physician should use the criteria adopted by the Philippine National Committee on Human Milk Banking in determining the qualified recipients of donated milk.
The ordinance also tags August every year as “Breastfeeding Awareness Month” and the local government should conduct activities geared toward protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding in the country.
The event also would guarantee the rightful place of breastfeeding in society as a time-honored tradition and nurturing values, as well and provide information about the benefits and superiority of breastfeeding over the high risks and costs of bottle feeding, the proposal adds.
Yangot is proposing a budget of P1 million from the city every year to establish the human milk bank.