BRICS countries to establish Human Milk Bank network

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa agreed to establish Human Milk Bank as an outcome of 11th BRICS summit in Brazil.

"We also welcome the creation of the BRICS Network of Human Milk Banks as proposed in the 1st Workshop of Human Milk Banks," said a joint declaration of two-day meeting on Thursday.

A human milk bank collects, screens, stores, processes and distributes donor breastmilk, which has been expressed by a mother and provided freely to a human milk bank to be fed to another mother’s infant.

There is already an established network in Europe, European Milk Bank Association, that has more than 200 milk banks operating in over 20 countries.

Representing five major emerging economies, the 12th BRICS summit will be hosted by Russia in Saint Petersburg.