MUMBAI: Philips India, a leading health technology company, today showcased an upgraded Comprehensive Lactation Management Centre (CLMC) at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, Mumbai, which was setup in 1989 and was the first human milk bank of Asia.
Philips India is supporting the setup and upgradation of 5 CLMCs across India to help reduce neonatal mortality and morbidity, through uptake of breast feeding in the country. PATH, a global organization that works to accelerate maternal and newborn health is providing technical support to implement this endeavour. These centres are being set up in line with the Government of India’s national Lactation Management Centre guidelines. CLMCs promote and support breastfeeding, encourage kangaroo mother care and provide access to safe donor human milk for those babies who cannot breastfeed. CLMCs also support mothers in lactating and expressing milk for their own babies who are in neonatal intensive care units and cannot breastfeed.
For India to reduce under-five mortality, ensuring scale up of early and exclusive breastfeeding would play a key role. India also has a large share of vulnerable babies many of who do not have access to mother’s own milk. This lack of access to breast milk leaves infants more vulnerable especially those born preterm, low birth weight to disease or poor health. CLMCs help bridge this gap by ensuring access to human milk for these babies. Evidence shows that a non-breastfed child’s risk of death is six
