Chennai: For the past few months, Sharanya Govindarajalu has been helping save lives in a way only a new mother can – by donating her breast milk. Five days a week, the 32-year-old mother of a seven-month-old sends 100ml to 150ml of her breast milk to a neonatal hospital so it can be used to feed one of the several pre-term babies in desperate need of nourishment.
“My husband is a blood donor, I am a breast milk donor,” says Sharanya. “At the end of the day we are both helping another human being. Some of the preterm babies are barely the size of my palm. To know that I can help them in some way is a good feeling,” says Sharanya who sometimes visits the recipient babies and their mothers.
Sharanya is one of several other mothers in a network called Natural Parenting Community that has been coordinating breast milk donation. “Sometimes the hospitals contact us, sometimes we donate on a regular basis because the milk can be stored at the hospital,” says Wahida Satishkumar, a regular donor.