Health professional Luciana Simões Gripp Barros donated excess milk until the eldest daughter was nine months old and stopped with the onset of the covid-19 pandemic because there were no studies on the disease yet. Now, with her youngest daughter less than a month old, she has returned to donate at the Instituto Fernandes Figueira’s Milk Bank, of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (IFF/Fiocruz), located in the Flamengo neighborhood, in the south zone of Rio de Janeiro. According to Luciana, when a woman becomes a mother she begins to look at the baby in a different way. “She starts to put herself in the shoes of that mother who has a premature child, who doesn’t have enough milk or who can’t breastfeed. Everything changes. Our gaze is more attentive to the baby”. She explained that when a woman has a child, hormones are so high that they bring a sensitivity that leads to realizing and really putting yourself in the other’s shoes. “It is a tangle of feelings. It’s gratitude, empathy, it’s you also being grateful to God for having the opportunity to breastfeed your daughters. So, doing this for the other is a form of retribution for what you have”. Emergence The first human milk bank in the country was created in October 1943, at the Instituto Nacional de Puericultura, today IFF/Fiocruz, reaching five units until the 1980s. Human Milk Banks (BLH-BR Network) during a congress, in 1985. The coordinator of the BLH-BR Network, Danielle Aparecida da Silva, also coordinator of the Human Milk Bank (BLH) of the IFF/Fiocruz, informed that in another congress , in 2010, this network was extended as a global network of human milk banks. “Because only from 2005 onwards, we have the participation of other Latin American countries and, later, the Iberian Peninsula, the Caribbean, America and Africa.” More recently, countries from the BRICs (bloc that brings together Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) joined. The Brazilian network served as inspiration for the Global Network of Human Milk Banks (rBLH). “It expands into a global network. We are a single model, a single action”. Reference The BLH-BR Network has become a world reference for its modus operandi (mode of operation), said Danielle. The model introduced in Brazil in the 1940s was Anglo-Saxon and understood the use of human milk as a medicine for children who did not respond well to treatment when hospitalized. But, when the work of the banks began in a network, human milk came to be seen much more than a medicine, as a functional food, with its own characteristics, capable of promoting the growth and development of vulnerable newborns admitted to the ICU. newborn. “And more than that: We bring assistance and attention to breastfeeding into the milk bank. In other words, the milk bank becomes a breastfeeding support center, a center for the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding”, reinforced Danielle. Any woman who has doubts about some complications during the breastfeeding period can go to a human milk bank, where the multidisciplinary team will support her at that time, indicated the coordinator. Therefore, the bank is also seen by the Ministry of Health as a tool to promote breastfeeding and an instrument to reduce infant mortality in this neonatal area. Then, it starts to have visibility to other countries. “Thus, we begin to implement technical cooperation in human milk banks”, highlighted the coordinator. Brazil currently has 228 human milk banks and 240 collection points. São Paulo is the state with the largest number of banks (58) and has 49 collection points. Of the total of more than 234,000 liters of human milk collected last year by the BLH-BR Network, the Federal District was the federative unit that collected the largest amount of human milk: 15,162 liters. “It is where there is greater self-sufficiency in human milk”. The state of Rio de Janeiro has 17 human milk banks and 18 collection points. Benefits This year’s campaign for World Human Milk Donation Day has the slogan “A small gesture can feed a big dream”. Danielle took the opportunity to tell the women who produce an excess amount of milk that they can contact the banks and make their donation. “By breastfeeding, she dreams of a better future for her child. And, when she donates, she allows other mothers to dream too, because she is donating to a premature baby, who is in the neonatal ICU, who was born before her time and still needs this donation a lot for healthy growth and development. Because human milk is the best food, which has all its ingredients in an appropriate way for the growth of that child”. Human milk also has characteristics of preventing diarrhea, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes; it is a food against infections. The woman who donates human milk is helping, supporting the healthy life of another baby. The average is 40 premature newborns admitted to the IFF/Friocruz per month. How to donate To become a donor, a woman must call the IFF/Fiocruz milk bank at the toll-free number 0800 026 8877 and register. The latest prenatal exams are requested. When registering, the mother receives guidance on how to express and collect the milk, said Danielle. Immediately after collection, the milk must be frozen in sterilized glass bottles that the mother receives from the human milk bank and labeled. The material can remain frozen for 15 days. “Mom puts her name and collection time on the tag.” The following week, IFF representatives collect the frozen milk from the donor’s home and leave more bottles and labels. Mothers should not smoke or use alcohol or illicit drugs. They will be donors for as long as they want. There is no restriction on the volume donated. The milk donated to HMBs and Collection Points undergoes a rigorous selection, classification and pasteurization process until it is ready to be distributed with certified quality to babies hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units. Breastfeeding women who are interested in donating or have questions can contact the IFF/Fiocruz Human Milk Bank (BLH) at 0800 026 8877, (21) 2554-1703 or (21) 9 8508- 6576 (whatsapp). On the 23rd, the IFF/Fiocruz human milk bank will promote a celebration event with donor mothers and mothers of premature newborns admitted to the institution’s Neonatal ICU. Throughout the month of May, the unit is conducting the Breastfeeding Counseling Course for its health professionals.
Agência Brasil
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