Human kindness keeps Saigon milk bank overflowing

By Le Phuong   November 14, 2019 | 03:00 am PT
Human kindness keeps Saigon milk bank overflowing
Pasteurization of breast milk at Tu Do Hospital. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen.
Do Phuong Quyen, 37, has donated 172 liters of breast milk so far to the milk bank of Saigon-based Tu Du hospital.

On average, she saves a liter of milk a day. Once she has eight liters, she tells Tu Du Hospital to send someone to pick it up.

It has added up to 172 liters in the last six months, and scores of preemies and orphaned babies have benefited.

"It is lucky I produce a lot of milk, and after nursing my baby I hand over the rest to the milk bank," she says. "I don’t have any secrets for producing lots of breast milk".

Two months after she gave birth to her child Quyen voluntarily contacted the milk bank and offered to donate.

Nguyen Huu Tien, 39, her husband said he has always supported her milk donation to help preemies and children whose mothers have difficulty producing milk. He also gives a hand with cleaning the breast pumps and storage bottles. The couple have also donated a mobile breast milk container to Tu Du Hospital.

She has been the biggest donor followed by Nguyen Thanh Tam, who has donated 142 liters. Tam was delivering her second child on March 16 when she was informed that the hospital would set up the milk bank the next month. She immediately registered as a donor.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Tu Anh, chief of the neonatal department at Tu Du Hospital, says the milk bank has received donations from 135 mothers not only at the hospital but also outside. So far 2,768 infants have been fed the donated milk. 

 
 
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