PUNE: Pasteurisation helps eliminate harmful bacteria while using human milk for another child in a human milk bank. However, this machine used for pasteurisation is expensive and has to be imported. 

On Wednesday, a cheaper, portable and indigenously developed Human Milk Pasteuriser was launched by a Pune-based company at a very low cost, strengthening the setup of human milk banks at smaller hospitals.

Dr Uday Devaskar, Director, Neonatal ICU, University of California and Los Angeles, (UCLA)) launched the portable human milk pasteurising machine named ‘Kimie’. 

Giving details about the machine, Dr Devaskar said that Pune-based Sudhir Waghmare has invented the first portable Human Milk Pasteuriser in India, ‘Kimie’ that can pasteurise human milk from 15 ml to 300 ml. This compact machine requires minimal space and costs only Rs 8 lakh, whereas the imported one costs Rs 50 lakh. This makes setting up of human milk banks easy and affordable for even small paediatric hospitals and healthcare entrepreneurs.

He said the problem of insufficient lactation in mothers can be overcome by setting up ‘Human Milk Banks’ that collect mother’s milk from donors and preserve it for needy infants. 

“Insufficient lactation in mothers is a common problem that results in depriving the newborn infants of mother’s milk, which is the best source of nutrition that protects the infants from illnesses and infections that they are prone to. Sometimes, the mother’s milk is not produced in the first two days and during such times, using pasteurised milk is important instead of using formula milk,” said Dr Devaskar.

Speaking about a rise in pre-term babies, Dr Devaskar said that the number of pre-term babies has gone up by 1-2 per cent in most countries. 

“This is mainly because of the advancements in medical science, due to which babies born very early are also surviving. Recently, a 24-week-baby was born at a Pune-based hospital, which survived,” said Dr Devaskar.