The Quezon City government’s human milk bank has extended its services to in-need babies admitted at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Tala Hospital in Caloocan City, whose mothers were found positive of COVID-19.
“It has always been part of the QC Human Milk Bank’s program to extend our services to in need infants and moms regardless of the city they are in,” chief Dr. Shahani Duque said.
Three liters of pasteurized breast milk were donated to Tala Hospital for infants whose mothers are Covid-19 patients and in quarantine.
Sick and premature babies will benefit from the donated breastmilk.
The QCHMB and the QC Health Department collected donated human milk from breastfeeding moms in the city’s 32 lying-in clinics.
The human milk bank also continuously picked up bags of milk from screened private donors.
Last May, the QCHMB also provided seven liters of pasteurized human milk to neonates at the Philippine General Hospital affected by the fire accident in the hospital.
Last year, the city also helped breastfeeding mothers affected by the Taal Volcano eruption.
“The donations were made possible because of the continued support of our QC mother donors. We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to them who, despite the pandemic, still continue to donate their extra breast milk to the milk bank, which we give out to babies in need,” Duque added.
The city’s human milk bank was established in 2015 to aid babies and their mothers who experience difficulty breastfeeding.