PATRICK, a premature baby weighing a minuscule 1.2 kilos, was "saved" by a breast milk bank in South Africa, where child mortality is high despite being the continent’s most developed economy."It was a question of life and death because of the fact he could not go on formula," said his 39-year-old mother Annerleigh Bartlett."There was no way. He was too little." Ms Bartlett, from Cape Town, wasn’t producing her own milk yet, and the formula can damage premature babies’ intestines.So, for the first two weeks of his life, Patrick relied for his survival on breast milk donated by anonymous women.The principle of milk banks is simple: mothers donate milk, which is tested, pasteurised, then delivered to babies in need. "Every drop counts," said a poster at the headquarters of the South African Breastmilk Reserve (SABR), a network of milk banks which supply 87 hospitals and feed over 2,800 children this year."Human milk banks should be promoted and supported as an effective approach to re...
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