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China will open its first human milk bank

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China will open its first human milk bank.[File photo]

Amid fears about the safety of infant formula, a milk bank has been opened, where new mothers are donating their breast milk.

About eighty mothers have so far pumped three litres of their breast milk for the bank in Guangzhou city, South China, since it first opened in late March for a trial period.

The Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Centre has spent over 500,000 RMB or 81,500 US dollars to facilitate the bank.

The bank has already provided breast milk to six babies, including prematurely born ones, and an 11-year-old child.

30-year-old Li Zhiai has donated her milk to the bank for her fourth time.

"Why do I come here and what motivates me? It's for the babies. Just for the babies. I learned about sick babies on TV and media reports and I feel pity for them. This is the main reason."

Chinese mothers have been closely guarding their infants' diet since chemical-tainted baby milk formula killed six children and sickened thousands across the country in 2008.

Liu Xihong, the milk bank's co-founder, says about 30-percent of mothers practice breast-feeding here in China, and that number drops to less than 20 percent in urban areas.

So she hopes the milk bank can help promote breast feeding in the country.

"Fundamentally, the number (of breast-feeding mothers in China) is not very big. So how would they have extra milk for donation? This is one problem. Another one is, (people think) 'why do I have to feed other mothers' milk? Even if I don't have milk, I can feed milk formula.' So their knowledge on milk formula and human milk are both lacking."

Liu says on average a baby drinks 200 to 300 milliliters of milk everyday, so the current inventory is only enough to feed 10 babies for one day.

The milk bank will officially open in early June.