Breast Milk Bank of Kyiv Perinatal Center – experience in 2022

In the conditions of rapid social and economic changes such society categories as pregnant women, women after labour and newborns are especially helpless. Lactation onset is extremely sensitive to stress. Instead, under the stressful conditions breastfeeding is the key to safe nutrition and protection from the emotional stress of the child and mother. One of the modern technologies for supporting breastfeeding is breast milk banks (BMB), the first of which in Ukraine is functioning on the basis of the Perinatal Center in Kyiv. This article is devoted to the peculiarities of the BMB’s work in the conditions of a full-scale war.The objective: to study the main indicators of BMB work in Kyiv Perinatal Center for 2022 and compare them with the indicators of the previous periods.Materials and methods. The reports on the activities of the BMB in Perinatal Kyiv Center for 2020, 2021 and 2022 were analysed.Results. During 2022, there was a tendency to increase the number of breast milk donors who delivered in other institutions, but the number of donors was similar (26.4 % in 2022 versus 5.7 % and 4.6 % in 2021 and 2020, respectively). In 2020, the recipients of breast milk were 400 newborns, in 2021 – 560 newborns, in 2022 – 2010. A decrease in the quantity of premature newborns in the structure of recipients of donor breast milk was also found – 12.7 % in 2022 versus 74 % and 82 % in previous years.An increase in the number of full-term newborns who received donor breast milk during the lactation is a significant result that corresponds to the social situation. The volume of harvested breast milk decreased from 990 litres in 2020, 980 litres in 2021 to 660 litres in 2022.Conclusions. The Breast Milk Bank (BMB) of the Kyiv Perinatal Center continues to play its role in preserving the life and health of Ukrainians and restoring our country. The volumes of breast milk received from donors in the hard year of 2022 were less than in previous years (660 l vs. 990 l), but an increased number of newborns who received it was found (2010 children in 2022 vs. 560 children in 2021), and the predominance of full-term recipients among them (87.3% of all recipients in 2022 versus 26% in 2021) was observed.Among breast milk donors, women who had premature births continue to dominate – 77 %. The main task of BMB is to involve women with term births to donation. This will allow both to increase the volume of donor breast milk and to improve its quality from the point of view of benefits for the growth of a newborn.