Unicef supports the creation of Human Milk Banks in Cuba
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will donate the medical equipment of the Human Milk Bank (BLH) in the Neonatology ward of Antonio Luaces Iraola Provincial Hospital, in Ciego de Ávila, in recognition of Cuba’s resistance to the US blockade and the results of the Island’s Maternal and Child Care Program.
Odalys Rodriguez, UNICEF Program Officer in Cuba, explained to ACN that the technology, valued at more than 50 thousand dollars, is part of the cooperation project promoted by the United Nations with the nation, in which maternal and child care is of the first order, an effort in which they work together with the Ministry of Public Health.
The processing of human milk on the Island, through the creation of banks in hospital facilities, began in 2000 and to date 10 of the 15 provinces have one, while in addition to the Ciego de Avila, those of Villa Clara, Matanzas and another in William Soler Paediatric Hospital in Havana are bring built.
The availability of the BLH at “Antonio Luaces Iraola” will provide the health center with an optimal feeding service for babies weighing less than 1,500 grams, who require surgery, who cannot be breastfed by their mothers or who cannot breastfeed them, as well as for newborns who have undergone surgery and those under 30 weeks of age, she added.
Rodriguez emphasized that the global organization will provide the required equipment, promote the initiative and ensure that the standards established for this type of provision are met, but the training of medical and non-medical staff and quality in performance are the responsibilities of many, not just the authorities of the sector in the province.
The representative of Unicef recalled that staff can be trained in nearby provinces -Sancti Spíritus and Camagüey, for example, as part of a work schedule that must also include constructive work and an intense movement of promotion.
Pablo Roque Peña, national coordinator of the Breastfeeding Program, stressed that the BLH in Ciego de Avila will offer newborns a milk with all its properties, even pasteurized, and it will make it possible to obtain a range of different foods to face any clinical situation.
The facility will provide nutritional security to babies and it represents a very effective support tool for neonatologists and intensive pediatric therapy, he said.
The director stressed that everything that is done in the BLH has to constitute a line of research or an important scientific pole to study and transform the service.
Sara María Herrera Oliva, in charge of the Maternal and Infant Program in Ciego de Ávila, insisted on the importance of the project and of familiarizing potential donors with the high human component of this action.
She highlighted, therefore, the work of the media and health areas in the stimulation and incorporation of donor mothers, in order to ensure assistance to newborns who require natural and exclusive food.
Margré Hernández Delgado, architect of the Design and Engineering Company in the territory, explained that since 2011 the open and closed Neonatology service works, linked to the delivery and cesarean sections of the hospital. This project includes the BLH which will soon be added to the ward of Antonio Luaces Iraola Hospital.
Fernando Fernandez Ronco, head of the Neonatology service in that facility, added that the new provision involves commitment, desire and willpower, while recognizing how much it will contribute to lower infant mortality rate and survival in babies.
Natural milk greatly favors the nutritional recovery of critically ill newborns, it also reduces the risk of infection, given the inestimable conditions of sterilization, and it enables food to be available according to the age of the baby.
(Taken from ACN in Spanish)
Written by Radio Grito de Baire
