Hospitales andaluces reciben donación de 21.000 litros de leche materna
Andalusia has three breast milk banks that have received a total of 21,675 liters of the best food for newborns since 2010. These banks, located in the Virgen de las Nieves Hospital in Granada, Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Seville, and Reina Sofía Hospital in Córdoba, collaborate with other healthcare centers and provide coverage to a total of 13 hospitals across the Andalusian community.
The Ministry of Health and Consumption wants to acknowledge, on the occasion of World Breast Milk Donation Day celebrated on May 19, the solidarity of the 3,990 women who have donated their breast milk for premature babies or newborns with serious conditions, such as those undergoing abdominal surgery, suffering from heart conditions, or experiencing asphyxia during childbirth, hospitalized in the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) centers. Since the first Andalusian bank, the one at the Virgen de las Nieves Hospital in Granada, started operating, a total of 7,849 babies from all over Andalusia have received this milk that acts as a natural medicine and helps them overcome the challenges of their illness or premature birth.
These three centers supply a total of 13 hospitals across Andalusia. For example, at the Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital in Granada, where the first breast milk bank was established, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, more than 2,300 women have donated 12,300 liters of milk benefiting 5,033 newborns, mostly premature babies but also newborns with serious conditions like those undergoing abdominal surgery, heart conditions, or experiencing asphyxia during childbirth.
In Seville, the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital has received over 7,900 liters of milk from 1,272 donors since its opening in 2016, covering the needs of 2,383 children in all these neonatal units. Lastly, the Reina Sofía University Hospital in Córdoba inaugurated its bank in 2019 and has since recorded 1,460 liters from 305 donors benefiting a total of 433 babies.
Both the Granada and Seville hospitals function as regional banks that distribute pasteurized donated milk to other hospitals in their vicinity, in addition to receiving milk for processing from collaborating centers. They are, therefore, recipients and guardians of this valuable food, as well as developing significant initiatives in promoting breast milk, fostering professional training, and conducting research in this field.
Breast milk banks face the challenge of adapting to the new European Union regulation on Human Origin Substances (SoHO), approved in June of last year and set to come into effect in August 2027. For the first time, breast milk is considered a substance of human origin (similar to blood or other tissues), and through this regulation, it aims to ensure standardization in procedures and supervision and inspection of entities processing human origin substances, providing an additional guarantee for recipients of donated milk.
Benefits of Breast Milk
Andalusia promotes breastfeeding with strategies and actions aimed at promoting, preventing, and providing care for infant and adolescent health, starting precisely with the promotion of breastfeeding and with human milk banks for children whose mothers are unable to breastfeed them. Among the strategic objectives of the Healthy Living Promotion Strategy in Andalusia 2024-2030 is to «increase breastfeeding levels and the consumption of healthy foods over unhealthy ones,» carried out through specific actions such as promoting breastfeeding from pregnancy to postpartum in all healthcare levels (primary care and hospitals), including it in childbirth and postpartum preparation programs or by extending and organizing this network of breast milk banks in Andalusia, capable of meeting all the needs for using this food for newborns in the community’s hospitals.
Indeed, the consumption of donated breast milk reduces serious generalized infections in premature babies and fights intestinal necrosis. Receiving donated human milk in the early days, until the mother can establish breastfeeding, allows babies to improve their intestinal transit, have better digestive tolerance, and achieve better nutrient assimilation.
