Breast milk for babies of Ukraine

Under martial law, women give birth not where they planned, and not when they planned. Shelling, uncertainty, worries about family members – all this leads to premature or pathological births. Despite this, breast milk is a priority food for newborns, especially for premature babies, and breastfeeding in a woman is the top priority.

It allows you to provide nutrition to the baby during the first 6 months of life under any conditions and in any place, does not depend on mixtures that are simply impossible to obtain during the war due to their absence in the warehouses of suppliers and the financial capabilities of the family, does not need boiling water and sterilization of bottles and nipples, etc. Newborn children are the future of the country, and they should not suffer because of the war of war.

Currently, hospitals in western Ukraine, due to the large number of internally displaced persons, are accepting much more patients than before. Among them are many women who recently – in the conditions of war – gave birth to babies.

The goal of our project is to purchase 5 KITETT(R) FISIO(R) PRO medical electric breast pumps complete with KOLOR(R) pumping sets and transfer them to 5 medical institutions: Vinnytsia Regional Hospital, Khmelnytsky Regional Hospital, Lviv Perinatal Center, Ivano- Frankivsk Regional Hospital and the Perinatal Center of Rivne.

The breast pump completely imitates the process of breast sucking by a child, provides the newborn with mother's milk, which is the most useful food and the best medicine for the baby, even if the child feeds on it through a tube. In one day, at least 20 women can use the breast pump, the minimum pumping time is 20-30 minutes. In the pre-war period, this device helped to establish breastfeeding for 140-150 women in a month (there are more of them in Lviv – 200 women). Now their number has increased by at least 20% (in Lviv – by 25%). The warranty period for the use of electric breast pumps is 3 years.

Thanks to this project, at least 970 women will be able to receive monthly assistance (as of March 16, 2022, 180 women receive assistance in each of the 4 hospitals, in Lviv it is approximately 250 women per month), establish breastfeeding for their babies and provide newborn babies with food.