Milk of kindness Premature baby’s mother donates 25 litres of breast milk

AHMEDABAD: She is a mother who lost one of her twin babies while the other was fighting for survival after being delivered prematurely at only 23 weeks and six days, and weighing mere 550gm. But through the ordeal that lasted three months, Vishwa Kuntal Vakil, a chartered accountant by profession, donated 25 litres of breast milk for the benefit of other newborn infants caught in a war between life and death in the neonatal ICU.
Two days before Mother’s Day, when Vishwa’s son Keshav got discharged, weighing 2. 29 kg with good health parameters but still hooked to the oxygen cylinder, she called it a miracle. She also promised a fellow mother, who delivered premature twin babies, that she will continue to donate her milk so the little ones get the nourishment they need.
“This could easily be among the largest amounts of mother’s milk donated by an individual woman across states with milk banks. Earlier, we had a mother who had donated 18. 3 litres of her milk. Donated milk keeps premature babies nourished as, many a time, their mothers find it difficult to produce adequate breast milk,” said Dr Ashish Mehta, a senior city-based neonatologist.
“A mother who has seen her child fight life and death knows the importance of breast milk. The donation is no big deal,” said Vishwa, who became a mother 10 years after her marriage.
While she lost her daughter within hours of delivery, she took home her son after more than three months of hospitalization on Friday. Vishwa’s story is one of grit and determination. She underwent three miscarriages before she and her husband decided to opt for IVF. She had anespecially difficult pregnancy. In fact, while mothers endure labour pain for about four to eight hours before childbirth, she endured five days of pain to delay her delivery by as many days as possible to help her fetuses reach 24 weeks.
“With her relatively short cervix, it was difficult for her uterus to sustain the pregnancy,” said Dr Falguni Bavishi, a city-based obstetrician and gynaecologist. The doctors said that even in premature childbirth, completion of the 24th week is important for the baby’s brain to develop adequately.
“The baby’s chances of survival increase by 1% every dayinside the mother’s womb after the 23rd week,” said Dr Mehta.
“After the painful ordeal, in the 24th week, I delivered twins weighing 460 grams each. My daughter died within five hours. Keshav survived and he now weighs 2. 29kg,” said Vishwa.
“One litre of breast milk can sustain about six babies a day. So, one can understand how many babies would have benefited by Vishwa’s kindness,” said Dr Mehta. Vishwa considers herself fortunate to have been of help to other mothers. “I wish that every mother experiences the joy of seeing her newborn’s healthy growth instead of worrying about its survival,” she said.