British High Commissioner to Kenya, Nic Hailey, has revealed that Nairobi’s Pumwani Maternity Hospital will be the first of its kind to have Human Milk Bank, set to be launched in April this year.
Funded by the United Kingdom government through UK supported initiative – Mother-Baby Friendly Initiative Plus, Sh65 million will be injected into the project to finance its completion
“This will be symbolic of the importance our respective governments place on improving newborn health and life opportunities in Kenya,” said the British High Commissioner Nic Hailey.
Mother-Baby Friendly Initiative Plus has already supported infrastructure improvements at Pumwani Maternity Hospital, procured and delivered the necessary milk bank equipment, including a pasteurizer. The Hospital’s technical team has been well trained and oriented on the human milk bank operations. Through an exchange exchange programme to Scotland, the technical team has learned about quality assurance systems and outreach programmes, that will be key contributors to the success of the project.
“We have also established a technical working group at both national and county level to provide oversight and ensure adherence to quality and standard and developed guidelines and tools to support operations of the milk bank,” he noted
In a statement from the High Commissioner’s office, the county needs to speed up the acquisition of essential laboratory equipment worth Sh6 Million which for the project to become fully operational.
Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko expressed confidence that the project will boost the maternal health care in the county.
“We are glad that the UK government is helping us in this project, first ever in East African region.We are in full support of this project because it will transform the maternal health of Kenyan in our country,” noted Sonko.
The nutritional benefit of human milk in maternity health care is keyin reducing child mortality rate in the Kenya.
