Beyond bloodline: How donated milk is saving India’s most vulnerable newborns

The first thing a mother wants to do after bringing a baby into the world is often the simplest: hold the child close and feed it. But for some newborns, that first feed never comes.Their mothers may be critically ill, separated from them, unable to breastfeed immediately or, in the most heartbreaking cases, no longer alive.For a premature baby weighing just a few hundred grams, however, waiting for circumstances to change is not always an option.This is where another mother can step in.Human milk banks in India are built around a quiet act of generosity: a lactating mother donates milk her own baby does not need, and through a carefully regulated medical system, that milk reaches a newborn whose own mother cannot provide it."Milk bank helps one mother save the baby of another mother," said Dr Poonam Sidana, director of neonatology and paediatrics at CK Birla Hospital, Delhi.The idea may…