: Mumbai Producer Donates 40 Litres of Breast Milk During Lockdown, Saves Lives #IndiaNEWS #Charity Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on 21 February 2020. After nine years

Mumbai Producer Donates 40 Litres of Breast Milk During Lockdown, Saves Lives #IndiaNEWS #Charity
Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on 21 February 2020. After nine years of marriage, Nidhi and her husband, Tushar, welcomed Veer into their home. While she enjoyed the newfound joys of motherhood, she found herself in a particularly perplexing situation. “After nursing my child, I realised that I still had a lot of milk leftover. I had read on the internet that breast milk does have a shelf life of three to four months if properly stored in a refrigerator,??? begins Nidhi, who went on to make a sizable donation of breast milk during the lockdown period.
A month-and-a-half down the line, she found her freezer starting to fill up with breast milk as she still had not found a good enough use for it. “The internet suggested making face packs out of it. Some of my friends said they bathe their babies with it or even use it to scrub their feet. Since I thought this was a cruel waste of milk, and I did not want to give it to salons (laughs), I began researching breast milk donation,??? says the 41-year-old, film producer, who was last associated with Saand Ki Aankh (2019).
It was a serendipitous encounter that led Nidhi, who was on the brink of getting rid of her excess milk, to Surya Hospital, Khar, Mumbai. The hospital has had an operational breast milk bank since 2019. However, due to the lockdown, which began at the end of March in the city, the hospital didn’t receive its usual amount of milk donations.
“I contacted my gynaecologist at Women’s Hospital, Bandra, who suggested I donate the milk to Surya Hospital. Up until that point, I had about 20 packets of 150 ml each in my fridge, but the thought of getting out to donate during the lockdown was concerning, for I now had a baby at home. But the hospital was very forthcoming and ensured a zero-contact pick-up from my doorstep,??? says Nidhi.
“We generally encourage mothers, who have not delivered their babies with us, to drop off their milk donations at the hospital. But even though we were also concerned for our staff when the pandemic hit we offered to pick up these donations, ensuring zero-contact,??? says Dr Hari Balasubramanian, consultant Neonatologist at Surya Hospital, who is also in charge of the breast milk bank.
A bank that saves tiny lives
For the hospital, necessity was the mother of all inventions. “Our NICU (Neonatal intensive care unit) has 65 active beds, and 70 per cent of the babies born here are below 1. 5 kg, while 30-40 per cent are less than one kg. At this stage, babies only feed on breast milk, which needs to continue for another 70-80 days. However, when the baby is born before nine months, often the mother faces problems with lactation.

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